THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 20, 1996 TAG: 9610180035
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J4 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: 28 lines
Under Bill Clinton, American families have been squeezed between falling wages and higher taxes. Today, the typical family pays 38.2 percent of its total income in taxes - more than for food, shelter and clothing combined. By cutting taxes and balancing the budget, Bob Dole will create more opportunities for families.
Bob Dole's economic renewal plan would cut income taxes across the board by 15 percent, give 23 million families a $500-per-child tax credit and balance the budget by 2002. This plan is supported by numerous Nobel Prize-winning economists. And governors of both political parties are proving that it is possible to balance the budget and cut taxes at the same time. Just last year, 21 states enacted tax cuts and all of them balanced their budgets.
The Bob Dole economic-renewal plan will not ``blow a hole in the deficit.'' The deficits of the 1980s did not result because families were taxed too little but because Washington spent too much. After President Reagan's across-the-board tax cuts, total federal revenue doubled and individual income-tax revenues actually increased by 56 percent. However, for every $1 of additional revenue collected by the government, the Democratic Congress spent another $1.33.
JASON A. WALKER
Chesapeake, Oct. 8, 1996 by CNB