This piece by Pete Yost of the Associated Press must be music to President Bush’s ears. After describing a speech by the president this morning at a North Carolina community college, Yost provides the following passage:
The visit to Charlotte to announce the initiative, part of a wider election-year bid to help workers adapt to the changing economy, also marks his last planned personal appearance in the record-shattering fund-raising drive that brought in more than $182.7 million in 11 months.
Monday’s event collected $1.55 million from 900 donors, the Bush-Cheney campaign said.
Bush told his contributors that Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry wants to raise taxes on all Americans, but “fortunately we’re not going to give him that chance.” Bush said his goal is to make his tax cuts permanent and to open up overseas markets to North Carolina products.
Put aside for the moment the fact that it’s hard to tell from Yost’s description that Bush in fact delivered two speeches today, the first at the community college, the second at a fundraising event.
More important, Yost parrots the White House line that “Kerry wants to raise taxes on all Americans,” and offers no hint that the statement is riddled with unwarranted assumptions.
This speech by the president from a fundraiser on March 31 offers more detail on how the White House justifies the charge:
Senator Kerry is proposing a lot of new government spending, as well — about $1.7 trillion at last count, and the campaign is just getting started. He says he’s going to pay for all this by raising taxes on the rich. To cover all the spending, Senator Kerry would need to eliminate every single one of the tax reductions we passed, as well as more tax increases. The marriage penalty would go back up; the child credit would go down; taxes on many small businesses would rise. Even low-income people paying the 10-percent rate would see their taxes go up. I guess that’s his idea of taxing the rich. It turns out, if you have a job, a child, or a dollar to spare, Senator Kerry thinks you’re rich enough to pay more taxes.
The charge that “Kerry wants to raise taxes on all Americans” relies on three assumptions that Kerry himself has repeatedly disputed or disavowed: A) that Kerry’s increased spending would amount $1.7 trillion; B) that Kerry would raise taxes to cover the entire $1.7 trillion; and C) that Kerry’s tax hike would have to consist, in part, of repealing all of Bush’s tax cuts.
Most news outlets have figured out that this dubious claim rests on three wobbly legs concocted by the Bush-Cheney campaign. Even the AP has usually informed readers that the Bush campaign is calculating the estimated cost of Kerry’s proposed programs, then assuming taxes he’ll raise taxes by that amount. But Yost completely neglects to mention that crucial caveat.
It’s hard to blame the campaigns for making outlandish charges when the press refuses to call them on it.
–Zachary Roth
Zachary Roth is a contributing editor to The Washington Monthly. He also has written for The Los Angeles Times, The New Republic, Slate, Salon, The Daily Beast, and Talking Points Memo, among other outlets.