ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, August 5, 1996 TAG: 9608050116
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Associated Press
Bob Dole, trying to reinvigorate his presidential campaign, decided to sweeten his economic package with a dramatic call for a 15-percent across-the-board tax cut, his advisers said Sunday.
He will formally unveil his tax plan, which the campaign claims would cost $548 billion over six years, today in Chicago.
Dole aides said it was the first step in a major tax simplification plan that would eventually result in a ``flatter, fairer and simpler'' system.
``It is bold and it is comprehensive,'' senior Dole policy adviser Donald Rumsfeld said Sunday. ``It will be a wonderful thing for the country.''
The 15 percent tax cut would be phased in over three years.
The plan was immediately attacked by the Clinton administration. Vice President Al Gore said it would ``blow a hole in the deficit.''
Besides the across-the-board tax cut, Dole's aides said his plan would:
* Reduce the capital gains tax from its current 28 percent to 14 percent.
* Re-propose a GOP-backed $500-per-child tax credit that had been vetoed by Clinton.
* Repeal the tax increase on Social Security benefits that was part of the 1993 tax increase.
* Rewrite the tax code so that about 40 million Americans would not have to file at all but could do so if they chose to claim deductions.
* Establish ``investment education accounts'' that would be similar to Individual Retirement Accounts. Earnings would accumulate tax-free as long as money was spent on a child's education.
Dole had swayed between such a Reaganesque tax cut and a more modest gesture of proposing the repeal of the 1993 increase.
But he finally sided with such advisers as defeated GOP rival Steve Forbes and Sen. Spencer Abraham, R-Mich., who had forcefully urged the more dramatic approach, said those close to the deliberations.
``We'll lay it all out there,'' Dole told reporters Sunday as he headed to his campaign headquarters for what he said would be a ``long'' day.
The launching of the economic package begins a crucial week for Dole, who trails Clinton by as much as 20 points in some polls. Dole must settle on a running mate and prepare for next week's Republican National Convention.
Advisers view this period as crucial to animating the Dole campaign. and say the economic plan will become the centerpiece of Dole's effort.
On the eve of his announcement, Dole was still grappling with details of the plan - and how to pay for it.
Beyond spending cuts, Dole will propose the sale of some federal assets to boost revenues and simplifications in the tax code designed to reduce tax avoidance.
But a large portion of paying for the plan would come from an assumption of stronger economic growth, theoretically to be triggered by the tax cut itself.
LENGTH: Medium: 59 lines KEYWORDS: POLITICS PRESIDENTby CNB