Cheney's Economics 101: Higher Deficits, 3 Million Jobs Lost, Mountains of Debt

Today Vice President Cheney is attacking John Kerry for opposing the Bush-Cheney economic plan which has lost 3 million jobs, created spiraling budget deficits and put the nation in debt for generations to come. Like Bush, Cheney has no credibility to lecture anyone on the economy. The Bush-Cheney approach to the economy isn't working, and Bush and Cheney are practically the only ones who continue to defend their failed economic policies. People want a change in the direction of our economy, and John Kerry is offering that change with his economic plan which will create 10 million new jobs, provide real tax relief for the middle class and cut our record-high deficits.

1. Bush-Cheney: Worst Job Creation Record Since Hoover. “The economy has lost 2.2 million payroll jobs since January 2001, giving Bush the worst job creation record of any president since Herbert Hoover. The U.S. economy, to match the White House's jobs forecast, would have to churn out well over 220,000 new jobs each month for the rest of the year, economists say.” Nationally, the economy has lost 2.9 million private sector jobs under Bush-Cheney team. Almost 2.8 million of those are in the manufacturing sector. [Associated Press, 2/11/2004; Bureau of Labor Statistics, http://www.bls.gov]

2. Bush-Cheney Solution: Tax Cuts for the Rich. The Bush administration’s solution to economic problems was tax cuts for the richest Americans. They said their tax cuts would create about 4 million jobs over the course of Bush’s first 4 years. Instead the country lost 3 million jobs, and the richest 1% of taxpayers received about 50% of the total amount from tax cuts. Bush’s next solution? More tax cuts for the rich. [www.ctj.org; Associated Press, 2/19/2004; NBC, “Meet the Press,” 2/8/2004]

3. Bush-Cheney Team Presided Over “Biggest Gusher of Red Ink In History.” “President George W. Bush has now presided over the biggest gusher of red ink in the nation's history, from a surplus of $127 billion when he entered office for fiscal 2001 to a 2004 deficit projection of $521 billion. …” [Business Week Online, 2/3/2004]

4. As Gas Prices Soar and Consumers Suffer, Cheney Keeps Collecting from Oil Company. Vice President Dick Cheney was CEO of Texas-based Halliburton from 1995-2000. In addition to providing a massive salary and bonus for only eight months of work in 2000, Halliburton’s board of directors voted to give Dick Cheney a $20 million retirement package when he resigned. [New York Times, 8/12/2000; Los Angeles Times, 7/24/2000; Associated Press, 7/18/2002]

Oil-Industry Execs Argued for Ways to Create Higher Gas Prices. “A 400-page report in 2002 by the staff of the Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, then chaired by Democrat Carl Levin of Michigan, uncovered several internal memos in which oil-industry execs advocated measures to hold back refinery output to keep gas prices high. [Business Week, 3/29/2004]

5. Cheney’s Firm Also Won No-Bid Contract, Then Billed Taxpayers. “Because Cheney served from 1995 to 2000 as CEO of Halliburton, which has been the biggest winner in landing Iraq work, the West Wing's ties to the company invite extra scrutiny. Cheney, who earned about $44 million during his tenure at Halliburton, has asserted that he has cut ‘all my ties with the company,’ but Halliburton confirms that he receives on average about $180,000 of deferred compensation annually from the company. Since the onset of the Iraq war, critics have decried the unusual no-bid contract that a Halliburton subsidiary received and the apparently inflated bills the company submitted to the government for some of its work.” [National Journal, 2/14/2004]

REALITY CHECK: CHENEY’S NOT TELLING THE TRUTH; KERRY HAS CONSISTENTLY SUPPORTED MIDDLE CLASS TAX CUTS

“In a speech planned for delivery to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Monday, Cheney questions Kerry's commitment to extending tax cuts due to expire: an increase in the child tax credit; tax reductions for some married couples who would pay more than they would as individuals; and an expansion of the bottom 10 percent tax bracket. Kerry has said he would keep those tax cuts in place. Cheney was to say that Kerry voted against creating the new 10 percent bracket; against repealing the inheritance tax; against cutting taxes on dividend income; and against raising the amount of investment expenses that businesses can write off.” [Lindlaw, Associated Press, 3/28/2004]

Once again, Dick Cheney is telling less than half of the truth. Today the Vice President has cherry-picked a handful of votes that were part of the Bush Tax Cuts of 2001 and 2003, which John Kerry opposed because they primarily benefited the wealthy and contributed to record deficits. What Cheney didn’t say was that Kerry supported the middle class alternatives to the Bush Tax Cuts. Here are just a few examples of things that were included in those alternatives, which, again, Cheney failed to mention:

THE TRUTH: Kerry actually voted he actually voted to EXPAND the child credit by lowering the eligibility threshold for a refundable child tax credit from $10,500 to $5,000. [2003, #153]

THE TRUTH: Kerry actually voted for FASTER marriage penalty relief; casting a YES vote for Conrad’s amendment to cause marriage penalty relief for those in the 15 percent bracket to take effect in 2002. [HR 1836, 5/17/2001, #112]

THE TRUTH: Kerry voted to EXPAND the 10 percent bracket. [2003; #168]

THE TRUTH: Kerry voted to ELIMINATE the estate tax for small businesses and family farms. He voted to exempt family owned farms and businesses immediately, raise the exemptions and cut the estate tax rate for estates under $10 million. [HR 8, 6/12/2002, #149, 150]

THE TRUTH: Kerry voted to CUT taxes for small businesses.

Kerry voted to allow businesses for one year to write off $75,000 in investment, create a 50 percent tax credit for small business health care expenses, [2003, #167] voted to extend the business research and development tax credit through 2013, [2003, #154] and voted to extend R&D tax credit and increase first-year write-off for small business (a $4.3 billion tax cut) [1993, #326]



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