Taxation &endash; As promised in the election of 2000, the Bush administration has lowered taxes not once, but twice &endash; once in June 2001, the second time on May 28, 2003. These tax cuts included the doubled child tax credit ($1,000 per child), the expanded dependent care credit ($3,000 per dependent up to $6,000), marriage penalty cuts, the earned income credit expansion for married joint filers, and the reduction in marginal tax rates from 39.6 percent to 35 percent, 36 percent to 33 percent, 31 percent to 28 percent, and 28 percent to 25 percent. link

GEORGE W. BUSH:

Description of Candidate's Position: Bush is in favor of continuing to lower taxes for all Americans. According to the President, "this tax relief plan promotes the values that make the American economy second to none -- access to the middle class, family, equal opportunity, and the entrepreneurial spirit." Under the President's proposal, the tax rates were reduced in 2001 from 15% to 10% for those making $0-$6,000, from 28% to 15% for those earning $6,000-$27,050, from 31% to 25% for citizens earning $27,050 to $136,750 and from 36% and 39.6% to 33% for those earning more than $136,750.

Quotation from the Candidate: "These are the basic ideas that guide my tax policy: lower income taxes for all, with the greatest help for those most in need. Everyone who pays income taxes benefits &emdash; while the highest percentage tax cuts go to the lowest income Americans. I believe this is a formula for continuing the prosperity we've enjoyed, but also expanding it in ways we have yet to discover. It is an economics of inclusion. It is the agenda of a government that knows its limits and shows its heart." link

Assessment of the Proposal:

Positive: According to Kiplinger's, Bush's proposal bumps the child tax credit from $600 to $1,000 for 2003 and 2004. In addition to that, a bill passed by the Senate during 2003 would also the income phase-out (the level at which a person is no longer eligible for the credit) to $115,000 in 2008 and $150,000 in 2010. According to Cameron Huddleston, the associate editor of financial advice Web site Kiplinger.com Bush's proposal allowed 25 million people to receive checks in July of 2003 for the increase in the child tax credit. She also states that taxpayers in the top four tax brackets will see bigger paychecks thanks to lower income-tax rates.

Negative: The big question is how Bush is able to afford to pay for these tax cuts. As it says at one website, Bush "raided" $500 billion from Social Security funds. It also suggested that the median tax cut for Americans was only $470 while the average cut for a person making over $1 million was $112,925. Huddleston suggests in the same article that investors and owners of small businesses will gain more than lower income singles with no capital gains or dividends. Furthermore, Dennis Cohen, a tax attorney, states that "the clear winners are wealthy Americans because of the reduction in tax rates, and, more importantly, it's the high-income taxpayers who have dividend paying stocks and capital gains."

Comparison: Kerry supports the President as far as tax cuts for middle-income workers, concurring that those cuts should be permanent. However, the Kerry plan would repeal the Bush tax cuts for those making $200,000 or more. According to the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, the rollback in taxes will generate $686 billion in revenues over the next 10 years.

Link to Kerry on taxation.