Republican Senator Charles Grassley, the chairman of the U.S. Senate’s Finance Committee, was campaigning today (Wednesday) with Jeff Lamberti, the Republican candidate in Iowa’s third congressional district and both charged that Democrats would raise taxes if they win Congress in November.
“Taking the Democrats at their own word, if they control the next congress, or either house of the next congress, there’s going to be big tax increases,” Grassley says. According to Grassley, Democrats do not intend to make the income tax cuts enacted in 2001 and 2003 permanent. “Republicans put a 10 percent bracket in. Prior to that, low income people were starting out to pay a 15 percent tax rate,” Grassley says. “If we don’t make the tax cuts permanent, that means that family is going to start off paying 50 percent more right off the bat.”
Lamberti says if elected to the U.S. House, he’ll vote to make those 2001 and 2003 tax cuts permanent.
“I will, in fact, be a consistent vote for lower taxes for working Iowans as their voice in congress,” Lamberti says. Lamberti says his opponent, Democratic Congressman Leonard Boswell, voted against making the tax cuts President Bush pushed for permanent.
“When he opposed making those tax cuts permanent, for an average family of four in Iowa making about $40,000 that means their tax burden would have gone up about $2000,” Lamberti says. “I think that’s wrong for Iowa. I think that’s wrong for Iowa families.” Lamberti’s campaign staged a statehouse news conference today (Wednesday) and arranged for a young couple with three children to speak on Lamberti’s behalf.
Thirty-five-year-old Shane Dudley of Des Moines runs his own heating and cooling business, and told reporters he and his wife, Kathy, have a fourth child on the way. “Money is definitely a struggle for my family…We struggle to make ends meet,” Dudley said. “I guess I’m just concerned about what the decisions of congress will be, if they decide to raise taxes, what that means for a family like mine.”
Boswell’s campaign issued a written statement, saying that if Lamberti is elected to congress he’ll “rubber stamp President Bush’s dangerous scheme to privatize Social Security, slash benefits and drive the country into bankruptcy by adding trillions of dollars to the national debt.” Boswell’s statement did not address Lamberti’s charges on taxes.