The Man who Promises Everything...
Published August 06, 2004
And the list goes on. That's a lot of promises. I'm not one to deny one the rights to promise, but that is a long list of promises. The National Taxpayer's Union Foundation commissioned a study to quantify the cost of Kerry's promised policy changes to confirm that they are in fact, possible. Using third party sources, like the Congressional Budget Office, they assigned a cost to each budget proposal offered by Kerry. They also used the NTUF BillTally project, which has tabulated and recorded the cost or savings of each piece of legislation introduced in Congress since 1991 (over $1 million). They had the following to say:
"Despite Kerry's attempts to outflank Bush on the deficit issue and portray himself as the more fiscally responsible candidate, the data behind Kerry's rhetoric tell a different story," said NTUF Policy Analyst and study author Drew Johnson. "Enactment of Kerry's 'revised' spending agenda in its entirety would still mean higher taxes, a larger national debt, or likely both."Their findings included the following highlights:
You can read the whole piece here. I am not happy about the size of the deficit under George W. Bush...I don't think a whole lot of people are. But it doesn't look like that's getting any better any time soon, barring a huge jump in tax revenue. If John Kerry can keep his promises to America, then more power to him, Hail to the Chief. But what happens when he can't?Based on Kerry's promise to "pay for" every program he has proposed, U.S. taxpayers would each face an average additional $2,206 in higher taxes during Kerry's first year in office, and a cumulative increased tax burden of $6,066 over his first term.
If Sen. Kerry's policy agenda were enacted in full, annual federal spending would rise by at least $226.125 billion during the first year of a Kerry Presidency alone.
Despite nearly $36 billion in spending cuts, $734.62 billion of Kerry's spending agenda remains unaccounted for, and presumably passed on to American taxpayers in the form of increased taxes or suffocating debt.
Kerry has promised nearly $115 billion in social welfare, foreign aid, energy, and environmental handouts during his first term, including $2 million to restore voting rights to felons.
Although Sen. Kerry claims Americans can look to his voting record when determining whether to trust his vow of fiscal responsibility, according to NTUF's BillTally and VoteTally reports, Kerry sponsored or cosponsored $182 billion worth of new federal legislation in 2003, and voted to increase federal spending by $466.5 billion during 2002. VoteTally figures for 2003 are unavailable due to Sen. Kerry's many absences.
Kerry has announced only five cost-saving policy ideas out of a total of 70 policy proposals.
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- The Man who Promises Everything...
- Published: August 06, 2004
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- Section: Culture
- Writer: Jeremy Chrysler
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I've never voted FOR anybody. Voting has always been about trying to keep the worst candidate out of office. I can't think of any politician in my lifetime in whom I've had any confidence.
If you're going to play with "Facts," RJ, you should use facts, not Heritage Foundation and American Enterprise Institute spin.
Kerry's tax rollbacks will raise more than $600 billion. From Business Week 8/2/04:
Kerry offers a $650 billion health-insurance plan and $200 billion in education spending, to be financed by rolling back Bush's tax cuts for families earning more than $200,000 -- about 3% of taxpayers. That could free up some $600 billion to $860 billion.A single-payer health plan will reduce health care costs for everyone.
Contrast that with the latest Medicare Bill signed by Bush: that even makes it illegal for Medicare to negotiate prices with providers.
With the above, there's no need to address the irrelevant hypothetical you mis-label as "Fact 3."
Who, exactly, is lying?
By the way, while I prefer a single-payer/universal health scheme sort of along these lines, you can find a one-page summary of Kerry's Health Plan in the August 16th issue of Business Week. Some highlights:
The Kerry plan would insure 27 million additional Americans, resulting in coverage for 95% of the nation's citizens and 99% of its children at a 10-year net cost of about $650 billion. Kerry would pay for his health plan by rescinding the Bush tax cuts for those with incomes in excess of $200,000 a year, restoring their tax rates to the levels that prevailed under President Bill Clinton.
Perhaps the most important component of Kerry's health plan is the creation of a government reinsurance program to cover a significant share of the costs of catastrophic claims, reducing their burden on private insurers and businesses that provide insurance for their employees. Health economists estimate that Kerry's reinsurance program would cut health-insurance premiums by as much as $1,000 per year and make them more stable over time.
There's more there for those of you more interested in facts than politically-motivated foofawraw and fallacies.
Add your comment, speak your mind
(Or ping: http://blogcritics.org/mt/tb/18357)
John Kerry's "promises" simply cannot be kept.
He promises socialized-medicine, which would cost between 10 and 20 percent of GDP.
Kerry promises to cut taxes, while merely "repealing" Bush's tax cut on "rich people" making over $200,000.00 per year.
Kerry promises to balance the budget.
Let's take a gander at the relevent facts here...
FACT #1: Cutting taxes for most people, while raising taxes only up to Clinton-era levels on a tiny percentage of "rich" people, will not bring in much, if any, additional federal government revenue.
FACT #2: Kerry's health care plans are incredibly expensive, and the taxpayer would be picking up the tab.
FACT #3: Assuming #1 and #2 are actually implemented (in other words, if Kerry keeps just TWO of his promises), the budget deficit will vastly INCREASE. That means he will be unable to fulfill his promise to eliminate the budget deficit and begin to pay down the Nat'l Debt.
So, in short, Kerry is lying. He can't keep his promises. He's been Senator for almost 20 years, and has almost no legislative accomplishments during that time. So, he's running on empty promises and exaggerated claims about his few months spent in Vietnam (approximately one-sixtieth the amount of time he's spent in the Senate).
I can understand voting AGAINST Bush. But how can anyone actually vote FOR this man?