Kerry vows to cut taxes for most

Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry promised yesterday to cut taxes for 98 percent of Americans and pay for new education and health care programs by streamlining government and raising taxes on the other 2 percent of Americans.

In a speech at Georgetown University, Mr. Kerry laid out a general outline of his budget philosophy that could be summed up best as tax-some, spend-some.

“We will expand middle-class tax cuts for families with children and married couples, and we will pass new tax cuts to make education and health care more affordable, while cutting our deficit in half,” the Massachusetts senator said.

“But for Americans making more than $200,000 a year, we will simply roll back the Bush tax rates to the very same level that they were under Bill Clinton, when we had the strongest economy we’ve had in the history of this country. And we will use that money to pay for education and health care in America,” he said.

Mr. Kerry said he has a long record of supporting fiscal discipline “on the most critical budget votes of the last 20 years,” including the 1980s Gramm-Rudman-Hollings spending restraints; President Clinton’s 1993 budget deal, which included tax increases that began reducing the deficit; and the 1997 bipartisan agreement that propelled the federal government into surpluses.

But Bush campaign spokesman Steve Schmidt called Mr. Kerry’s focus on fiscal discipline a “political gimmick that defies his 20-year record in the Senate.”

“His speech failed to address the mystery of his own budget gap: Which taxes will he raise and which federal spending programs will he cut?” Mr. Schmidt said.

Mr. Kerry did not lay out specific budget figures for his proposals, but promised to follow strict budget rules as he continues his campaign, making sure that all of his new spending increases and tax cuts are paid for through other spending cuts or tax increases.

One key component is his proposed tax increase on those who make more than $200,000 a year — he has proposed rolling back their income-tax cut to the level they were before Mr. Bush took office.

Mr. Kerry also proposed cutting “government programs that don’t work.”

“We’ll freeze the federal travel budget, reduce oil-royalty exemptions for drilling on federal lands and cut 100,000 contractors now employed by the federal government. We’ll streamline government agencies and commissions and reduce out-of-control administrative costs by 5 percent,” he said.

But Commerce Secretary Donald L. Evans, in a speech to the National Federation of Independent Business, said Mr. Kerry cannot be trusted to make those cuts.

“Senator Kerry’s record indicates that he will get the money he needs not by reducing spending, but by burdening workers and business owners with even higher taxes,” Mr. Evans said.

With Mr. Bush’s having overseen increasing deficits, Democrats think there is a chance to make the case he has not earned the term “fiscal conservative.”

“George Bush now, finally — fourth year, election season — now promises to reduce the deficit, the same promise of fiscal responsibility that he’s made and broken in every year, every budget and every State of the Union message,” Mr. Kerry said.

“A deficit-reduction promise from George W. Bush is not exactly a gilt-edged bond,” he said. “And if he continued in the presidency, and if he performs as he has in the past, a second Bush term could, in fact, mean a third Bush recession.”