A-A-R-P — the nation’s largest senior citizens organization — hosted a presidential candidate forum yesterday in Des Moines to focus on issues like Social Security and Medicare. Six of the democrats who are running presidents appeared at the forum, and spent much of their time talking about the tax cuts President Bush enacted. Former Vermont Governor Howard Dean says the Bush tax cuts should be repealed in order to balance the federal budget, provide health care to all Americans and achieve other priorities.Dean says Bush has shown tax cuts don’t stimulate the economy. Dean says you can’t have the tax cuts and provide health care, because he says the books won’t balance, Dean says somebody’s “got to tell the truth to the American people that money does matter and so do balanced budgets.” Missouri Congressman Dick Gephardt agrees with Dean. Gephardt says the tax cuts have failed, and it’s time to go back to the Clinton tax code and use the extra money to help provide health care coverage. Gephardt says the Bush tax cut gives the average American family seven-hundred dollars, while Gephardt says his own health care plan will save that same family three-thousand dollars. But rivals like North Carolina Senator John Edwards disagree. Edwards says middle class, working families are the engine of the American economy, and Edwards says Gephardt and Dean would be raising taxes on those folks. Massachusetts Senator John Kerry agrees. Kerry says Democrats need to protect the middle class, and under the plans Dean and Gephardt are advancing the middle class would pay higher taxes.