Bush Radio Address Raps Kerry's Tax Plans

[underpants]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/bush


WASHINGTON - President Bush (news - web sites) used yet another forum to issue a thinly veiled attack against Democratic rival John Kerry (news - web sites), saying Saturday in his weekly radio address that higher taxes and new trade barriers would be "a recipe for economic disaster."

"They want to respond in old, ineffective ways," the president said. "They want to increase federal taxes, yet punishing families and small businesses is not a job-creation strategy. They want to build up trade walls, and isolate America from the rest of the world but economic isolationism would threaten the millions of good American jobs that depend on exports. These tired, old policies of tax and spend, and economic isolationism, are a recipe for economic disaster."

Even as Bush has implied that Kerry is an "economic isolationist," he has erected some trade barriers of his own. In March 2002, he imposed tariffs on 10 types of foreign-made steel, then set stiff import duties on a popular type of Canadian lumber.

"My administration ... reduced taxes on families and small businesses, we encouraged new investment and we're seeing the results," he said. "Yet, some industries and some parts of the country are still lagging behind."