PRESS RELEASE
September 25, 1996

STATEMENT BY JOE LOCKHART
NATIONAL PRESS SECRETARY

Today, Bob Dole posed the right question: "what do you call someone who ... gave you the biggest tax increase in history?" But, he gave the wrong answer. The right answer is Bob Dole.

In 1982, Bob Dole voted for the Tax Equity & Fiscal Responsibility Act which numerous economists and newspapers -- from the Wall Street Journal to the New York Times -- agree was the largest tax increase in peacetime history. In fact, not only did Bob Dole vote for the bill, he also wrote it.

Here’s what Bob Dole’s running mate, Jack Kemp, had to say about Dole’s 1982 tax increase, "the largest tax increase ever passed in American history - about $1,600 for every man, woman, and child."(St. Petersburg Times, 2/11/88)

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IN 1982 DOLE WROTE & VOTED FOR THE LARGEST PEACETIME TAX INCREASE IN HISTORY

"[T]he largest tax increase ever passed in American history -- about $1600 for every man, woman, and child."
-- Jack Kemp on Bob Dole’s 1982 tax increase [St. Petersburg Times, 2/11/88]

On August 19, 1982, Bob Dole voted for the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982 (TEFRA) -- the largest peacetime tax increase in history according to any reasonable analysis. Bob Dole authored and pushed for this tax increase that raised $298 billion over five years, in inflation-adjusted dollars. [HR 4691, 1982 CQ Almanac, Vote #335, p. 55-S; Wall Street Journal, 10/26/94; Joint Tax Committee, 6/23/93]

New York Times, 7/11/96:
"It is not true that the $240 billion tax increase approved by Congress in 1993 at Mr. Clinton's behest is the largest in American history. When adjusted for inflation -- the only way to make comparisons of dollar amounts from different years -- a tax increase engineered by Mr. Dole in 1982, when he was the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, was larger."

Wall Street Journal, 10/26/94:
"Contrary to Republican claims, the 1993 package ... is not 'the largest tax increase in history.' The 1982 deficit reduction package of President Reagan and Sen. Robert Dole in a GOP-controlled Senate was a bigger tax bill, both in 1993-adjusted dollars and as a percentage of the overall economy."

Joint Tax Committee, 6/23/93:
"[T]he tax increases proposed in the Administration's budget are smaller than the tax increases enacted in the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982 (TEFRA)."

Los Angeles Times, 8/7/93:
"Nor is the [1993] plan the biggest tax increase in history, as Republicans contended. With inflation factored in, the largest tax increase was the one enacted in 1982 under President Ronald Reagan and engineered in the Senate Finance Committee by its then-Chairman, Bob Dole."

Christian Science Monitor, 8/6/93:
"Senate minority leader Robert Dole called Mr. Clinton's plan the ‘largest tax increase in the history of the world.’ Canceling out the exaggerations of inflation, however, this tax hike will not surpass the one drafted largely by Mr. Dole in 1982."

THE DAY BEFORE BOB DOLE VOTED FOR THE LARGEST TAX INCREASE IN HISTORY, HE SAID THAT THE 1982 TAX INCREASE WAS "TOO SMALL"

Bob Dole, August 18, 1982: "There is no doubt in my mind it is going to be a good bipartisan package. I am still hopeful the good Senator from South Carolina will come on board. Last year, the tax cut was too big, and this year the increase is too small. Somewhere down the line they may get together." [Source: Congressional Record, S-21869, 1982. Emphasis Added]