Wesley Clark Proposes To Reverse Bush Tax Cuts

by Mike Godfrey, Tax-News.com, Washington

06 January 2004

Democratic presidential candidate Wesley Clark unveiled radical tax proposals yesterday which will reverse the tax cuts passed under the Bush administration but provide substantial tax cuts for lower and middle income families.

“My tax reform plan is simple” stated Clark on announcing the proposals. “Those who make the most should pay more. Those who make the least should pay less."

Under the Clark plan, a family of four making up to $50,000 will pay no federal income taxes, and all tax-paying families making up to $100,000 with children will get a tax cut.

Clark wants to shift the burden of taxation towards America's wealthier citizens and the plan calls for a five percentage point increase in tax for those earning over $1 million per year, as well as the closing of various “corporate loopholes”.

“The rate increase will only affect the top 0.1 percent of taxpayers. 99.9 percent of taxpayers will not pay a dime more,” claims the former general.

The proposals will mean the majority of households will no longer be required to file a conventional tax return and instead will file a simple three-line form detailing income, number of children and marital status.

"It provides much needed simplification to the U.S. income tax code” argues Laura Tyson, Dean of the London Business School and a former top advisor to President Bill Clinton.

"It offers substantial tax relief to lower- and middle-income families struggling to make ends meet; it reduces poverty; it restores progressivity to the federal income tax at a time when income and wealth inequalities in the United States are at record highs and continuing to rise; and it is fiscally responsible," she added.

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