Americans for Tax Reform warns that Kerry’s plans would hurt Ohio’s families
WASHINGTON – Today, John Kerry’s tax and spend proposals pose a significant threat to the health and pocket books of working women in Ohio, according to Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), the nation’s leading taxpayer group.
Kerry has proposed a $2.8 trillion spending increase over the next ten years according to budget reports by the non-partisan American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and ATR. To pay for his spending plans, Kerry would repeal President Bush’s tax relief package which has reduced the marriage penalty, increased the child tax credit to $1,000 per child and created a 10 percent tax bracket to aide single-parent households. These hikes would harm American families to bring in estimated revenues of only $860 billion, resulting in a federal deficit between $1.94 and $2.4 trillion over the next ten years.
“Kerry’s spending will result in either of two things,” said Grover Norquist, president of ATR, “It will either drive America deeply into debt, or hike taxes on American families at the risk of driving them deeply into debt.”
Kerry’s proposed healthcare plan would cost an estimated $1.5 trillion over the next ten years. ATR estimates that Kerry will need to impose a tax hike of $737 per taxpayer in Ohio, or more than $7,000 over the next decade, to pay for his plan. Yet d espite the massive price tag, most of the benefit would be wasted as the average person would receive a benefit of $451, which is more than offset by the increased tax burden.
“The Kerry plan would sell the health of our children for a few extra bucks,” said Norquist. “It puts the power to make health decision in the hands of bureaucrats, ensuring grave consequences for the most vulnerable among us and then sticks taxpayers with the bill.”
Additionally, Kerry would institute a massive 36 percent increase on the minimum wage, forcing poor mothers and first-job teenagers into unemployment. Employers make hiring decision based on the amount available to pay workers and many would no longer be able to afford additional wages.
“Kerry’s plan in a nutshell: raise taxes, displace the burden of healthcare costs onto the shoulders of American families and when they are deeply in debt, raise the minimum wage so that working mothers cannot pay their grocery bills,” concluded Norquist.