Clark Unveils Income Tax Plan

By David Darman on Monday, January 5, 2004.

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Democrat Wesley Clark today unveiled his tax reform plan in Nashua.

The plan would exempt millions of working people from paying any federal income taxes.

New Hampshire Public Radio's David Darman has more.

Wesley Clark says the current tax system is unfair to working families trying to make ends meet.

To help them, the retired general would recast much of the system.
01 827 my tax reform proposal is very simple. Those who make the most, should pay more. Those who make the least, should pay less. And here?s the benchmark. Under my plan, families of four, making less than 50,000 dollars a year, will not pay a single penny in federal income tax. 01 853

The Clark plan also cuts taxes for families making as much as 100,000 dollars a year.

The plan would reverse President Bush?s tax cuts that Democrats say mostly benefit the wealthiest Americans.

And General Clark says he would raise taxes on the richest individuals in the country.
2210 now the second thing we?re going to do under my tax relief plan, is go to those families with incomes greater than a million dollars a year, and ask that they pay a 5 percentage point higher tax rate only on the amount they earn higher than a million dollars. I think its fair, its their fair share. 01 2234

Like other Democratic candidates, Clark would also close loopholes for corporations that get tax breaks for taking jobs overseas.

And Clark claims his tax reforms will help lift millions of children out of poverty.

A family of four living on 50,000 dollars or less stands to save about 1500 dollars a year in taxes.

But many parents in New Hampshire make less than 50,000 a year.

But they don?t qualify for tax credits that lower rates for low wage families.

Because of that, groups that help the working poor like what they?re hearing from the Clark plan.

Gale Hennessy is the executive director of Southern New Hampshire Services.

He says the Clark plan should help the poor.
06 25 the definition of poverty is money and if you add up 1500 dollars per family I think it would go a long way toward that. Now I don?t know that it?s going to do the whole job. The way to get out of poverty in general is to get a skill and hopefully and education that goes with that skill. 06 47

Clark claims his plan won?t add to the federal deficit.

But the plan may have other flaws that were not apparent when it was assembled.

Robert McIntyre is director of Citizens for Tax Justice in Washington D.C.

McIntyre says Clark?s plan will certainly help middle class families.

But he says a glitch in the plan will leave lower income families actually paying more.
233 for people lower than the income scale making 15 or 20,000 dollars, it looks like he?s got a tax increase built in here. Now that may not have been his intent, but that looks like what the details show so far. 246

McIntyre also says Clark may be miscalculating the amount he can collect by reversing the Bush tax cuts.

He says Clark is counting on regaining more than one trillion dollars from the reversal.

But McIntyre claims the potential payoff is not that great.
410 The problem with that number is the tax cuts from those people from the second half of this decade, which is the only part he could control, are only about half a trillion dollars. And then, of course the tax cuts sunset. So, I don?t know how he gets half a trillion into one point one trillion.

As this is effectively Clark?s first draft, it will probably be subject to future improvements.

But in revealing the plan, Clark said he was ready to take the criticism that will surely come his way.