In a recent interview with an independent watchdog group, Nebraska Watchdog, Democrat U.S. Senate candidate Bob Kerrey confirmed that he’s ready to raise taxes on Nebraska taxpayers. It’s a rare occasion that a politician gives a straightforward answer to a simple question but Kerrey made an exception to confirm what many people have known for a long time: Bob Kerry is ready to raise taxes.

Kerrey was asked a direct question from the Watchdog reporter: “Are you ready to vote for a tax increase?” Kerrey barely hesitated to give the following answer: “Oh yeah!”

This should not surprise anyone familiar with his record in the 103rd Congress as a U.S. Senator. Kerrey was the deciding vote in favor of President Bill Clinton’s 1993 tax hike, which Kerrey himself declared as the “biggest increase in the history of the country.”

Thanks to Bob Kerrey, small business’ top rate skyrocketed from 31 percent to 39.6 percent. With small businesses currently accounting for more than 30 percent of Nebraska’s economic activity, those crippling tax rates would deter economic growth and hurt Nebraskans trying to find jobs to pay for government overspending.

Although those rates were reduced after President Clinton left office, President Obama has promised to let the rates go back up at the end of this year. With Taxmageddon looming, the risk of giving Kerrey a seat at the negotiating table to be a deciding vote for further tax increases on families and small businesses should scare all Nebraska taxpayers.  

“Bob Kerrey is a serial tax hiker. As the deciding vote on the largest tax increase in U.S. history at the time, he’s now affirmed that on tax policy, he has not evolved,” said Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform. “By promising to raise taxes again, Kerrey is letting Nebraskans know that he has no interest in getting serious about reining in government overspending or real tax reform.”

[PDF of Press Release]

Posted by Paul Blair on Thursday, June 14, 2012 10:46 AM EDT

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