Dole Campaign Press Release - Truth Watch

Claim: We have already cut taxes for 15 million working Americans.

The Truth: The President is bragging about expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit -- which is not a tax cut. 85% of EITC spending is not a refund of income taxes paid, but a government expenditure-like a welfare payment. (Senate Republican Policy Committee, 8/5/93 & 11/16/95)

The Truth: The President raised taxes on millions of Americans by $265 billion and is now proposing new taxes of $188 billion. (Joint Committee on Taxation, 9/11/96)

Claim: We have proposed $110 billion in tax cuts that are fully paid for and are targeted to help working families

The Truth: The President has proposed a tax hike, not a tax cut. (Joint Committee on Taxation)

The Truth: The President's budget proposes new taxes of $188 billion and leaves a net tax increase of $64 billion over ten years. That's because the bulk of his tax cuts are temporary, but his tax increases are permanent. (Joint Committee on Taxation)

The Truth: The cornerstone of the President's tax cuts, the family tax credit and the deduction for higher expenses, are for five years only, 1996-2000. They sun-set on December 31, 2000. "Coincidentally, his tax cuts last as long as his hoped-for next term. (Joint Committee on Taxation)

The Truth: His "bridge to the next century" is paved with taxes as far as the eye can see, while his tax cuts don't even make it to 2001. (Joint Committee on Taxation)

Claim: Bob Dole's economic plan will actually raise taxes on 9 million people.

The Truth: The Dole-Kemp economic plan does not raise taxes. Clinton falsely asserts that Bob Dole's economic plan will cut the Earned Income Tax Credit. Low and middle-income families receive the largest percentage tax cut under the Dole plan. Under the plan, the typical American family would see their taxes cut by $1261.

Claim: We will provide tax credits for inner city development.

The Truth: Al Gore's claim that the Clinton Administration will provide tax credits for inner city development is ready a reference to the Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC), which is already included in the minimum wage-small business tax relief bill enacted in August and passed by the Republican Congress. The WOTC is a revised version of the Targeted Jobs Tax Credit that expired in 1594 and had been law for years. (Washington Post, 8/30/96; CNN, 8/20/96)

The Truth, The Clinton proposal more than doubles the size of the WOTC, but only for long-term welfare recipients. Moving families off welfare is an important goal, but the new Clinton, proposal would work to the disadvantage of low-income workers who have struggled to get by while staying off welfare.

Claim: 2 million fewer people on the welfare rolls

The Truth: The rolls of all the major welfare programs -- AFDC, food stamps, SSI -- reached an all-time high under Clinton. In only 2 yens in history did the AFDC caseload exceed 14 million people, and they were both under Clinton (1993 and 1994). Instead of signing welfare reform legislation that would have moved more people off the welfare rolls, Bill Clinton vetoed it twice and is now trying to take credit for the reforms enacted by our Republican governors. 68% of families who left welfare in the last 2 years were families residing in states with Republican governors. (Committee on finance, Press release, 5/18/1996; Congressional Research Service)

Claim: Our plan would extend the life of the Medicare trust fund 10 years.

The Truth: False. Bill Clinton's Medicare proposal does not extend the life of Medicare until 2001. According to the President's Medicare trustees, the Medicare Trust Fund is projected to be bankrupt by FY 2001. According to CBO, without any accounting gimmicks, the Administration's plan would only save the trust fund until 2002, adding one year to its life. (House Budget Committee)

Claim: Republicans wanted to make deep cuts in Medicare.

The Truth: It is absolutely incredulous that Bill Clinton and Al Gore continue to call a 39% increase in Medicare a cut. Medicare spending per year increases at twice the rate of inflation under the Dole plan. The only one who wanted to cut Medicare was the Clinton Administration. In 1993, Hillary Clinton told the Senate Finance Committee that "zero growth" was the administration's target for Medicare spending. (Federal News Service, 9/30/93)

The Truth: There is only a 2% difference between the total spending on Medicare proposed by Senator Dole and that proposed by President Clinton ($1.510 trillion versus $1.479 trillion) over six years.

The Truth: There was only a 3% difference between the total spending on Medicare proposed by the Republicans in 1995 and the plan proposed by President Clinton. But Clinton vetoed the plan anyway.

The Truth: To quote Bill Clinton: "Only in Washington do people believe that no one can get by on two times the rate of inflation. So, when you hear all this business about cuts, let me caution you that is not what is going on." (President Bill Clinton, speech before American Association of Retired Persons, 10/15/93)

Claim: The partial birth abortion ban bill would not have protected health of the mother.

The Truth: False. Senator Dole added an amendment to allow the use of the partial-birth abortion in extreme cases, if the mother's life was in danger. The President vetoed the ban on partial-birth abortions despite the fact that 65% of those who call themselves pro- choice are opposed to partial birth abortion.

Even pro-choice, Democrat Senator Patrick Moyaihan has called the procedure "infanticide." (U.S. News and World Report, 6/10/96) The health of the mother exception demanded by President Clinton would have gutted the bill, allowing exceptions for age or even depression.

Claim: We've had middle-income tax-cuts on the table for two years.

The Truth: False. Bill Clinton vetoed S245 billion in tax cuts sent to him by Congress in 1995 (Vetoed on 22/6/95).

Claim: We've submitted a plan to balance the budget.

The Truth: Bill Clinton has stood in the way of every effort to balance the budget. Before the Republican Congress took over, Clinton Presented budgets with deficits of over $200 billion. He vetoed the first balanced budget plan passed by Congress in a generation. Clinton's latest budget does NOT balance the budget by 2002 like he claims. According to CBO, without the "trigger," it would leave a deficit of over $80 billion. (Joint Economic Committee, 3/96 CBO, 3/96)

Claim: Republicans wanted to give free reign to lobbyists for big polluters to re-write our environmental laws. They wanted to roll back protections for our air and water.

The Truth: Besides major, sweeping pro-environment legislation like Food Safety and Safe Drinking Water, the Republican 104th Congress enacted more than a dozen significant, pro-environment reforms, including legislation preventing exposure to toxins; cleaning up radioactive waste; recycling lands contaminated by hazardous wastes; expanding wildlife reserves and national parks; improving the quality of rivers, harbors, lakes and beaches; improving, the aquatic environment, and strengthening our fisheries management programs. By contrast, the Democrat-controlled 103rd Congress enacted no major environmental initiatives, and passed only one "environmental" bill of regional interest, the California Desert Protection Act. (House Commerce Committee)

Claim: We've cleaned up two-thirds of the worst toxic sites

The Truth: After 16 years and $30 billion, Superfund has "cleaned up" fewer than 100 sites, out of 1,300 on the EPA's "National Priorities List. That's why the Clinton Administration changed the definition of "cleanup." Instead of requiring that the site be fully restored and removed from the list, the Clinton EPA considers "cleanup" to happen once they've reached the decision how to clean up the site; once that happens, to the Clinton-Gore team, the site is "cleaned up" -- even if actual construction at the site goes on indefinitely. (House Commerce Committee)

The Truth: Fact is, the Superfund statute is so tangled, it still takes 12 years even to choose a cleanup plan -- and even under Clinton's new definition, the work which led to the "Clinton clean- ups" began actually during the Reagan and Bush Administrations. (House Commerce Committee)

Claim: We've eliminated 16,000 pages of unnecessary regulations.

The Truth: As of the end of June, the volume of regulations published in the federal Register has increased by 220,126 pages -- the most regulatory activity since the Carter Administration. (The Federal Register)

The Truth: While 16,000 pages have been eliminated, some 10,000 have been added -- meaning a net reduction of only 6,000 pages. Also, many of those were cut as a result of the underlying statute being repealed by the Republican Congress. Finally, beyond the page count, regulations will cost the economy $677 billion this year, a 5.5% increase since Clinton took office (Investors' Business Daily, 9/25/96)

Claim: New small businesses are growing rapidly.

The Truth: Clinton has opposed 85% of the recommendations made by small business owners at his own White House conference. (Senate Republican Policy Committee, 6/6/96)

"The Truth: Clinton increased taxes on small business. According to the IRS, 70% of those affected by Clinton's 1993 tax increase were small businesses.

What's more, Clinton's tax increase on individuals placed many small businesses in a higher tax bracket than fortune 500 corporations. (Joint Economic Committee, 5/96; Martin Gross: The Government Racket, 1995)

Claim: The economy is growing faster.

The Truth: Clinton's "recovery" is the most sluggish in a century. Economic growth under Clinton averaged 1.3% in 1995 and 2-5% overall -- the slowest expansion in more than 100 years (Joint Economic Committee). Of the 7 so-called "G-7" nations, our economic growth next year will be sixth. (International Monetary Fund)

Claim: Clinton signed the welfare reform bill

The Truth: Clinton vetoed the Republican welfare reform legislation twice. (Vetoed on 12/6195 and 1/9/96) Under election-year pressure, he finally agreed to sign the bill,

The Truth: The day after Clinton signed the welfare bill, Vice President Gore revealed Clinton's true intentions. He will weaken the welfare bill with the line-item veto: "Now, parts of the bill we do not agree with, the cuts in food stamps and the provisions on immigrants, we have an opportunity to fix. It does not go into effect until July 1st of 1997 ... W hatever Congress we have, if President Clinton is re-elected, he will have the line-item veto, he will have a mandate to fix these provisions." (This Week with David Brinkley, 8/25/96)

The Truth: Clinton is already undermining the new welfare reform law by freely granting waivers. Clinton has already granted 8 waivers, including a 10-year waiver to Washington, DC and an 8-year waiver with Hawaii to exempt them from the 5-year lifetime limit on benefits to the able-bodied -- the of the toughest and most necessary elements of the bill. The Administration later rescinded the D.C. waiver on the grounds that the city had failed to hold a public comment period, not that the waiver was weak on work. (Congressman Clay Shaw to President Clinton, 8/22/96, Reuters North American Wire, 9/19/96)

Claim: The Crime Bill Imposed 60 new death penalties

The Truth: In June, 1995, a Clinton/Gore campaign ad stated; "Expand the death penalty. That's exactly how we will protect America." (CNN 7/8/96). But in 1995, federal prosecutors sought the death penalty in only 4 cases despite 21,000 murders in the U.S. in 1995. (1995 Annual Report of the Attorney General of the United States). While in the Senate, Al Gore voted repeatedly against authorizing the death penalty for drug kingpins (1988 CQ Vote #172, 1990 CQ Vote #140)