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In March 2001, Web White & Blue received the SXSW Interactive Festival "Online Community" Award. We are very pleased to be recognized by this prestigious festival.

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Message of the Day from Al Gore

www.algore.com

AL GORE'S TAX PLAN: FOR THE VAST MAJORITY OF FAMILIES

WP: Gore's Tax Plan Gives Just As Much to the Vast Majority of Families; Bush's Plan Targeted To Benefit Wealthiest

As reported today by The Washington Post, both Al Gore's and George W. Bush's tax plans "would allocate roughly the same amount of money -- $500 billion over nine years -- to people making less than $100,000 a year." Ninety percent of all American families make less than $100,000 a year, according to Congress' Joint Committee on Taxation. "The other $800 billion of Bush's tax cut, including repeal of the estate tax, would mostly go to people in the wealthiest tax brackets, according to Congress' Joint Committee on Taxation," reports The Post. With interest, Bush's tax cut drains an extra $1 trillion from the budget surplus while providing no significant benefit to the vast majority of American families.

GORE TARGETS TAX RELIEF FOR THE VAST MAJORITY OF FAMILIES
"Gore selectively targets his tax cuts to married couples and families -- single, childless Americans are generally ignored -- and also offers credits to nearly 30 million of the working poor who have little or no tax liability. Gore has proposed about 30 targeted tax cuts, generally in four areas: retirement savings, health care, education and the environment."

BUSH TARGETS WEALTHIEST, SHORT CHANGES LOW-INCOME FAMILIES
"Bush, instead, emphasizes cutting tax rates, especially the highest rates, so that most of the cuts flow to the people who pay most of the taxes... less than 5 percent of the overall tax cut goes to people making less than $30,000. People with no income tax liability -- but who still pay payroll taxes -- get almost nothing under the Bush plan."

BUSH'S HYPOTHETICAL WAITRESS BENEFITS MORE FROM GORE
"But this waitress probably pays only about $100 in income taxes (while receiving about $1,700 in money back through tax credits). That limits her ability to receive much from Bush's tax cut, including his expansion of the per-child credit, unless she begins to move up the income ladder...Gore, by contrast, would increase the credit for the working poor and also make available a tax credit for dependent care that is denied to taxpayers with little or no tax liability. That would result in additional tax refunds of about $1,200 for this hypothetical waitress, according to the Gore campaign." [Washington Post, 10/17/00]

(10/17/00)

Rebuttal from George W. Bush:
BIPARTISAN INDEPENDENT STUDY : 50 MILLION PEOPLE WOULD RECEIVE NO BENEFIT FROM GORE-LIEBERMAN TAX CUT
STUDY ALSO SAYS AL GORE IS 'EXAGGERATING' WHEN HE ATTACKS GOVERNOR BUSH'S PLAN WITH 1% FIGURE
Study says Gore's Retirement Savings Plus program is a "large new entitlement program"
Today, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan independent organization, released an analysis of the two presidential candidates' tax plans. The study found 50 million people would receive no tax cut from Al Gore's tax plan because of the numerous selective requirements they would have to meet.
According to the study, "Reviewing the income limits and other constraints on the Vice President's tax cuts it is reasonable to conclude that 50 million people could fail to qualify."
The study also disagrees with Gore's attack of the Bush-Cheney tax cut. "The Vice President says that the Bush-Cheney tax cut gives 42% of the money to the top 1% of taxpayers. That is an exaggeration," the study states.
The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget is a nonpartisan group dedicated to a balanced budget. It is co-chaired by former Congressman Bill Frenzel (R-MN) and former Congressman Timothy Penny (D-MN). Its directors include such leading budget experts as Leon Panetta, Alice Rivlin, David Stockman, Jim Jones, Robert Reischauer, and Rudolph Penner.
The study did find that Al Gore's economic plan would "produce the largest spending increases since LBJ and the Great Society" and that his "proposed spending increases are nearly three times the Governor's."
"The Gore-Lieberman ticket needs the surplus to fund a very ambitious agenda designed to meet what they perceive to be pressing needs," according to the study. One example that the study cites as Gore's government spending is his Retirement Savings Plus (RSP) Accounts, which the Gore campaign has argued is a tax cut. According to the Committee, "we would characterize the RSP proposal as a large new entitlement program, rather than a tax cut."
Additionally, the Gore campaign today admitted that "single, childless Americans are generally ignored" by their tax plan. According to the IRS Statistics of Income, there were 41.8 million single, childless taxpayers in 1997.

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