GOP's Union Leader:Kerry-Edwards-taxes:Don’t believe the campaign rhetoric

[papau]

http://www.theunionleader.com/articles_showa.html?article=40427

GOP's Union Leader: Kerry, Edwards, taxes:Don’t believe the campaign rhetoric

JOHN KERRY and his running mate, John Edwards, like to say they favor low taxes for the middle class. But their records show otherwise.

Kerry and Edwards both say they want to maintain the existing tax cuts for the middle class, which President Bush initiated in several stages from 2001 to 2003, but raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans. One small problem. They both voted against those same middle-class tax cuts they now say they want to keep.

In January, Kerry attacked Howard Dean for saying, honestly, that he would raise taxes on the middle class. Kerry said this would devastate middle-income Americans who need the child tax credit and other breaks that had come with the Bush tax cuts. When reminded that this statement positioned him closer to, and Dean further from, President Bush, Kerry shot back, “I voted against the Bush tax cut.” An honest statement at last.

Guess how Edwards voted when, in May 2001, he had to decide whether to give taxpayers a $1.35 trillion tax cut or let the government keep that money? Yep, he voted against Bush’s massive tax cut, much of which went to the middle class. Like Kerry, he now says he favors keeping the very middle-class tax cuts he voted against. <snip>