PRESS RELEASE
August 20, 1996

STATEMENT BY JOE LOCKHART
NATIONAL PRESS SECRETARY

Today Bob Dole added more ornaments on his Christmas in August Campaign -- listing more programs that he will not cut to fund his massive, election-year, $550 billion tax cut scheme. The hard truth is that Dole is now campaigning on an economic plan that would inevitably lead to cuts in education, environmental enforcement and law enforcement even more drastic than the 1995 Dole/Gingrich budget -- which the American people rejected as extreme and mean-spirited. In a desperate, cynical, election-year campaign ploy, Dole has promised a massive, $550 billion tax cut -- without saying how he would pay for it.

The Concord Coalition, Business Week and U.S. News & World Report analyzed Dole’s economic "plan" and found that offering a tax cut of this size would require cuts of around 40 percent in all such domestic spending programs if Dole is truly being honest about leaving entitlements, including Medicare, untouched.

And today, Dole took spending on health care for veterans "off the table" -- meaning that other key areas will have to be cut even more deeply. In fact, Bob Dole would have to make cuts of over 40 percent in all other discretionary spending -- such as education, environmental enforcement, law enforcement and immigration.

The American people rejected the extreme Dole/Gingrich budget in 1995. And as they learn the details of the even more extreme Dole/Gingrich plan in 1996 -- the American people will again say no to Dole.

President Clinton has a better way, $110 billion in tax cuts that are fully paid for and targeted to help working families raise and educate their children -- and build on an economic record which has created over 10 million new jobs.

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