(Host) Both of Vermont’s Republican U.S. House candidates say they would oppose any effort to roll back recent tax cuts for wealthier Americans.
This issue was one of many discussed by Martha Rainville and Mark Shepard on VPR’s Switchboard program last night.
Rainville says she would vote against any plan to eliminate tax cuts for individuals in higher income groups because President Bush’s fiscal policies have had a positive impact on the national economy:
(Rainville) “We’ve seen with these tax rate decreases what happens when you put money back in taxpayers’ pockets. Those in the lower brackets have more money to spend when they need it. Those in the upper brackets tend to reinvest. We’ve had 5 million jobs created since those decreases went into effect. We have more revenue than was projected prior to it coming into the national treasury, so we have more money to support the programs that we need.”
(Host) Mark Shepard says rolling back the tax cuts for people who make more than $250,000 a year would be a big mistake.
(Shepard) “I think people who ask to roll back the tax cuts – they need to explain what government programs they’re planning on cutting in order to pay for rolling back those tax cuts, because rolling them back will reduce the amount of money that comes into government. We saw it in our state Legislature. Our Medicaid problem was less because of the federal tax cuts. The money that was available for the farmers was there because of those tax cuts.”
(Host) The winner of the GOP U.S. House primary will face Democrat Peter Welch in the general election.