CRAWFORD, Texas (AP) -- Taking the offensive on the economy, Vice President Dick Cheney will try to raise questions in voters' minds Monday about whether Democrat John Kerry would raise or lower taxes.
Kerry has tried to outflank President Bush on tax cuts in recent weeks, promising to lower corporate tax rates and saying that he and Bush agree on the need to extend some personal income tax cuts due to expire this year.
One major difference is on taxing the wealthiest. Kerry would repeal cuts for Americans who earn more than $200,000 a year.
But in a speech planned for delivery to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Monday, Cheney questions Kerry's commitment to extending tax cuts due to expire: an increase in the child tax credit; tax reductions for some married couples who would pay more than they would as individuals; and an expansion of the bottom 10 percent tax bracket. Kerry has said he would keep those tax cuts in place.
Cheney was to say that Kerry voted against creating the new 10 percent bracket; against repealing the inheritance tax; against cutting taxes on dividend income; and against raising the amount of investment expenses that businesses can write off.
"All those 'no' votes now form the basis of Senator Kerry's economic plan," Cheney said, according to an advance text of his speech provided to The Associated Press.
"He says that he will keep some of those tax cuts, never mind that he opposed each one of them at the time," Cheney says. "He has given the usual assurances that in those first 100 days he's planning, only the wealthiest Americans can expect higher taxes. But voters are entitled to measure that campaign promise against Senator Kerry's long record in support of higher taxes for every income group."
The remarks became available as Kerry was traveling from St. Louis to California and there was no immediate response from the Kerry campaign.
Nicolle Devenish, communications director for the Bush-Cheney campaign, said the re-election effort was relying on Cheney to "flesh out John Kerry's record." Cheney has also delivered sharper criticism than Bush on Kerry's national security agenda.
Kerry's policies would "derail our economic recovery," Devenish said.
Bush is trying to shore up support on the economy, a political vulnerable spot.
Cheney was to offer an upbeat assessment of the economy, saying that manufacturing and homeownership are up, inflation and interest rates down. The vice president gives tax cuts enacted by Bush in 2001 and 2003 credit.
"Thanks to our productive workers and entrepreneurs, the United States of America is the fastest-growing major industrialized economy in the world," Cheney says. "The tax relief we passed is working. For all this progress, we still have more to do."
Bush was spending a long weekend at his Texas ranch, but plans to give two speeches on the economy this week, both in electoral battleground states -- one in West Virginia, one in Wisconsin.
