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Bush, Kerry Are Not Fiscal Conservatives
American
Free Press | October 20 2004
Neither President Bush nor Sen. John Kerry
has a credible plan for dealing with the fiscal challenges he will face
if elected, according to the bipartisan Concord Coalition.
“Both candidates are touting expensive initiatives
costing about $1.3 trillion that would make deficit reduction more difficult
in the short term and fiscal sustainability unlikely in the long term,”
said the coalition’s executive director, Robert Bixby.
“The policy options in their plans are different
but the bottom lines are not,” Bixby told a Washington press conference.
“Regarding the deficit, they appear to be taking alternative routes
to a similar destination.”
The coalition said neither candidate is proposing a balanced
budget, setting aside resources for reform of the alternative minimum tax
beyond 2005, given assumptions on the ongoing costs of war in Iraq and Afghanistan,
or proposed a strategy for achieving long-term fiscal sustainability.
“Even if the policies in their budget plans succeed
in halving the deficit by 2009, deficits are on track to shoot up again
after that due to rising entitlement costs,” the coalition’s
report said.
Entitlements refer to financial benefits government pays
out to citizens, such as welfare, Medicare, Veterans Administration programs
and Social Security.
“Getting control of a ballooning budget deficit requires
two things the candidates are loath to discuss; spending cuts when they
would prefer to talk about increases and tax increases when they would prefer
to talk about cuts,” the report said. “Yet the American people
deserve something more from their candidates than an invitation to a free
lunch—even if that is what they want to hear.”
Both candidates’ proposals have back-loaded costs,
it said.
“The president’s five-year budget omits almost
90 percent of the 10-year revenue loss from his tax policy proposals,”
the report said. “The cost of Sen. Kerry’s health plan grows
by 50 percent between 2009 and 2024.”
Neither candidate “has produced a credible set of
numbers to back up his deficit-reduction rhetoric,” the coalition
concluded.
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