The Dole-Kemp economic plan cuts individual income taxes 15 percent and provides a $500 tax credit per child. That would be a tax reduction of $1261 for a family of four earning $30,000 a year. The child credit starts to phase out at incomes (actually, Adjusted Gross Income on your tax return) of $75,000 for single filers and $110,000 for joint filers.
The plan cuts capital gains taxes in half and expands Individual Retirement Accounts, both important to economic growth.
It reduces capital gains taxes on sales of homes (even for those under 55) and eases estate taxes on family-owned farms and businesses. It repeals Clinton's 1993 increase in taxes on social security.
It makes education easier to afford. Parents can invest the child tax credit in a fund for college education; some interest on student loans would be tax deductible; and employers could pay for education and training (even if not related to the current job) tax-free to the employee. A demonstration program of opportunity scholarships would give lower income kids a choice of schools--including private and religious schools--and help improve the public schools.
It requires cost-benefit analysis for new federal regulations and sets up systematic review and re-evaluation of old regs to reduce the regulatory drag on the economy. It reforms litigation to reduce the cost of law suits, which get passed on to consumers as higher prices.
It controls Federal spending to balance the budget by the year 2002-- while it protects expenditures on Social Security and Medicare.
It calls for a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution and a supermajority vote in Congress to raise taxes, to make these accomplishments permanent.
It makes taxes lower, flatter, fairer--paving the way for the debate on more fundamental tax reform and getting rid of the IRS as we know it.
Annelise Anderson
Senior Research Fellow
The Hoover Institution
Economic Adviser, Dole-Kemp '96