GOP Use of Treasury to Analyze Kerry Tax Plan Raises Questions

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

From today's Wall Street Journal. You need to be a subscriber to access the full story. But I've included enough for you to get the gyst.

By BOB DAVIS
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
March 31, 2004; Page A1

WASHINGTON -- The Treasury tapped civil servants to calculate the cost of Sen. John Kerry's tax plan and then posted the analysis on the Treasury Web site. A federal law bars career government officials from working on political campaigns.

The Treasury analysis doesn't mention Mr. Kerry by name. Rather it sketches out the potential cost of a tax plan that rolls back tax reductions for taxpayers with incomes above $200,000 -- the nub of the Democratic presidential candidate's plan. The result, the Treasury said in the analysis posted March 22, would be a tax increase of as much as $477 billion over 10 years on "hardworking individuals and married couples." The same day, the Republican National Committee issued a press release in which it unveiled what it called its "John Kerry $pendometer," and cited the same $477 billion figure as the cost of "raising taxes on the top income bracket."

Scrutiny of government actions is always higher during election campaigns, and similar controversies involving Treasury tax estimators have occurred in recent administrations, both Republican and Democratic. Still the current incident could raise questions at a time when the Bush administration is already embroiled in controversy over whether it is improperly pressuring government officials.

John "Buck" Chapoton, who headed Treasury's tax office under Ronald Reagan, said career tax officials "are supposed to be objective. It's important that they are thought of as not being influenced or used for political purposes."

-more-

http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB108069824631269856,00.html?mod=todays_us_page_one

[yardwork]

1. They are absolute scum.

[pinkpops]

2. do you have a link to the treasury site posting?

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

6. The only link I have is a copy of the report on the WSJ web site

http://interactive.wsj.com/documents/treasury_033004_complete.htm

I'll see if I can find a link to the Treasury site.

[unblock]

3. actually i don't think this is all that improper

republicans are of course well known for crossing the ethical line and pushing it to 'whatever we can get away with' point.

in this case, though, i'm not sure i have all that great a problem with this because kerry is an active senator. when an active senator or congressman is making headlines with a major proposal, it's not unreasonable for the civil servants to analyze it.

if kerry were a governor or in any event not a federal official, then i would certainly agree that this use of civil servants was clearly political and wrong.

[still_one]

4. Then why aren't they yelling about how much over

medicare, the war in Iraq, and practically the whole administrations budget is?

Your tax dollars at work!!!

[David Dunham]

5. These people should be sent to jail, for a whole year or more.