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Dems agree: Slice tax cuts for wealthy
Candidates want to replace Bush's cuts for high earners with new breaks for middle class.

Gordon Trowbridge / Detroit News Washington Bureau

Thursday, December 27, 2007

Democratic presidential candidates are just as unanimous on President Bush's tax cuts as Republicans. But where GOP candidates see cuts that should be made permanent and extended, Democrats see the need for rollbacks -- at least for cuts benefiting wealthy Americans.

"I want to restore the tax rates we had in the '90s," Hillary Clinton, the Democratic front-runner in Michigan, said during this month's Des Moines Register debate. "That means raising taxes on corporations and wealthy individuals."

Her top competitors, Barack Obama and John Edwards, have made similar statements, portraying the tax cuts pushed by President Bush in 2001 and 2003 as unfairly skewed to the benefit of well-off taxpayers.

Of course, on taxes and every other issue, the choices are complicated for Michigan Democrats. Because of a dispute with the national party over scheduling the Jan. 15 primary, none of the major Democratic candidates is campaigning in Michigan. Obama, Edwards, Bill Richardson and Joe Biden removed their names from the Michigan ballot, leaving only Clinton, Chris Dodd, Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gravel. State Democratic leaders have encouraged supporters of candidates missing from the ballot to vote "uncommitted" on Jan. 15.

While Democrats have portrayed the Bush cuts as fiscally irresponsible, they have fallen short of offering solutions to the long-term problems of growth in entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare, said Robert Bixby of the nonpartisan Concord Coalition.

"Democrats have their own convenient dodges," Bixby said. "Hillary Clinton will say she wants to go back to the fiscal responsibility of before the Bush tax cuts. Well, we have the same long-term problems as we had before the Bush tax cuts."

While the leading Democrats are clear that they want to eliminate the Bush administration's tax cuts for top earners, they're equally adamant that they want tax cuts extended or increased for middle-income taxpayers.

Obama, for example, would issue tax credits to working families below certain income limits and allow mortgage tax deductions for those who don't itemize their taxes. Edwards would institute tax credits that could be used for education or retirement.

But critics -- including the Republican candidates -- say Democrats would start major increases in federal spending. Each proposes significant new domestic initiatives, from major health care reform programs to education initiatives to plans for helping workers displaced by technology or trade.

You can reach Gordon Trowbridge at (202) 662-8738 or gtrowbridge@detnews.com.