PRESS RELEASE
August 19, 1996

STATEMENT BY JOE LOCKHART
NATIONAL PRESS SECRETARY

Everyone -- including senior citizens -- is worried about Bob Dole’s risky economic plan. And rightly so. It’s the same old story of campaign Dole vs. Senator Dole. During the 1994 Congressional elections, Bob Dole declared that Democrats were using scare tactics and "falsely accusing Republicans of secret plans to cut social security, Medicare and student loans..." (Washington Post 11/6/94). The same Bob Dole went on to offer $270 billion in Medicare cuts and $31 billion in education cuts in the Dole-Gingrich 1995 budget that President Clinton vetoed.

Bob Dole has now doubled his gamble with a risky $548 billion tax cut. The Concord Coalition, in a new statement released Friday, August 16 said: "Upon inspection, however, it turns out to embody nearly every pitfall we warned against....Its proposed outlay cuts are politically if not arithmetically impossible." (Concord Coalition Fax Alert, 8/16/96). And Business Week has warned: "Where on earth does he come up with that kind of dough...? From popular programs such as Medicare and environmental protection. But candidate Dole knows it’s bad politics to admit that now." (Business Week, 8/19/96) Even Dole’s own Campaign Co-Chair, Republican Senator Al D’Amato, has now said that Dole would have to cut Medicare -- although Dole would be foolish to admit it during the election.

Bob Dole should put everyone’s mind at rest and explain exactly what he will cut to pay for his newest plan. Until he does, all Americans are wise to be scared of candidate Dole’s reckless tax cut promise.

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