Dole Campaign Press Release - 2,000 Business Leaders Back Dole Tax Cut Plan

WASHINGTON (October 24) - On the heels of at report by the independent accounting and consulting firm Coopers & Lybrand giving a "thumbs up" to the Dole-Kemp tax cut proposal, a group of 2,000 business leaders today joined the "Dole-Kemp Committee for Economic Growth."

"Just this morning, The New York Times carried a report by Coopers & Lybrand that 'the Dole -Kemp plan pretty much works the way Dole-Kemp says,'" noted John Taylor, a noted Stanford economist. "Today's overwhelming endorsement by these 2,000 business executives shows that the Dole-Kemp tax cut plan is being accepted on Main Street as well."

"The 2,000 members of the Dole-Kemp Committee for Economic Growth represent a broad cross-section of the business community," said Robert Wood Johnson, IV, the group chair. "We represent small businesspersons and the executives of some of America's biggest corporations, but we agree on two things -- the need to enact significant tax reductions to create new jobs and stimulate economic growth, and the need to elect Bob Dole and Jack Kemp.

In announcing his participation in the group, a Passaic, New Jersey service station owner, Herb Staretz said "Clinton is dangerous for small businesses like mine; I can't trust his word on taxes -- or on anything else."

"Like most small business owners, we realize that Bill Clinton is no friend of small business," said Roxanne Robinson, Secretary/Treasurer of HomeInnovations in Hinesville, Georgia. "With the current tax codes and government regulations, it's becoming all but impossible for new businesses to start up."

A Spring Hill, Florida furniture refinisher, Lonnie Ledford, said that a second Clinton term "poses a real danger both to my own business and to the prospects for job creation in my business." "Clinton's 1993 tax on American citizen has increased revenue to the government by reducing everybody's take home pay."

A San Diego computer software entreprenuer Lawson, said that the Dole-Kemp proposal for a 15% income tax cut will "greatly impact" his business,

"US-1-COM," which provides billing software for telecommunications companies.

"If the tax rate is lowered by 15 percent, consumers will be spending some of the extra money on things like cellular phones, pagers, and so on. And since we provide the software that runs the billing for these telecommunications services, it stands to reason that we will profit."

Earlier today, the New York Times' Peter Russell reported that a study done by the accounting firm of Coopers & Lybrand "is good news for the Rupublicans."

The Times quotes John Wilkins, head of Coopers & Lybrand's Tax Policy Economics Group, as saying that "the plan pretty much works the way Dole-Kemp says."

While critics have "reacted negatively" to the Dole-Kemp tax cuts, Times columnist Peter Passell writes, "them is little disagreement that lower marginal tax rates are a legitimate goal of tax reform. Perhaps after the election, when Washington gets back to the business of political compromise, the point will seem obvious."