Prometheus 6

Cheney, Kerry Trade Barbs Over Tax Cut Proposal
By Mike Allen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 30, 2004; Page A04

Vice President Cheney charged yesterday that Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) is hiding the extent of his plans for raising taxes, but Democrats retorted that the White House is trying to divert attention from a stagnant job market.

Preparing for the monthly employment report that will come out Friday, President Bush plans to spend much of the week talking about economic issues. Kerry promised last week to introduce an economic program designed to create 10 million jobs by 2009, and the White House is fighting back by trying to impugn his credibility.

I'm seriously trying to remember the last time the Bushistas 'fought back' by any means other than impugning someone's credibility. They can only keep doing it because of Conservative credulousness.

Cheney, speaking before a friendly crowd of 300 at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said Kerry is not to be believed when he says that during his first 100 days, he would preserve the Bush tax cuts for most Americans and propose tax credits to help middle-class families while rolling back the Bush tax cuts for those who make more than $200,000 a year.

"To get a clearer picture of what the first hundred days of a Kerry administration would look like, we can start by reviewing his last 7,000 days in Washington," Cheney said. He said Kerry "will speak out against higher taxes when it suits the political moment, but is one of the most reliable pro-tax votes in the United States Senate."

I selected this quote to emphasize the particular audience Luthor Cheney is talking to. It's the only group to which the above statement can be spun into anything resembling an approach to the idea of a statement that reminds on of something that may one day approximate a model whose output can be interpreted in a way that approaches the truth.

Dick has made a lot of progress on the honesty front. We should congratulate him.

Cheney repeated Bush's assertion that Kerry has voted at least 350 times for higher taxes, a figure that includes votes against tax cuts. "He says that he will keep some of those tax cuts -- never mind that he opposed each one of them at the time," Cheney said. "He has given the usual assurances that in those first hundred days he's planning, only the wealthiest Americans can expect higher taxes."

A Kerry campaign statement said Cheney had "cherry-picked a handful of votes that were part of the Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003, which John Kerry opposed because they primarily benefited the wealthy and contributed to record deficits."

Again the blind stupidity of saying a vote against a particular tax cut is a vote in favor of a tax increase.

I find it equal parts remarkable and disturbing that an entire political campaign can so strongly depend on the miseducation of the American public. Kinda puts NCLB in a whole new light.

Ah, for the days when the Quadrivium was taught. Politics, unfortunately, comes from the worldview of folks stuck on stupid in the Trivium. People who think grammar, rhetoric and logic are the highest intellectual skills.

The Bush-Cheney campaign released a radio ad in which a Boston-area law enforcement officer says Kerry "likes to raise taxes -- it's what he's done before and you know he'll do it again." The officer also jokes about Kerry's accent, reminding voters that he is from Massachusetts, with its liberal connotation.

How about a counter-ad: "Dick Cheney likes to trade with known outlaw regimes -- it's what he's done before and you know he'll do it again." We can also joke about his bald head and squinty eyes, reminding people he looks like Lex Luthor, with its super-villain connotations.