Nation-Building >> Dean to propose payroll tax cut to benefit middle class | return to front page

The Nashua Telegraph picks up the payroll tax cut story:

Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean will propose a cut in the payroll tax to benefit middle-class families, but the plan won’t emerge publicly until after the first-in-the-nation primary here 17 days from today.

During an interview Friday, the former Vermont governor said he hasn’t had enough time off the campaign trail to craft his tax fairness proposal and is not deliberately withholding its release until after early primaries and caucuses.

“I’m going to propose a cut in the payroll tax, but I’m not sure of the level right now,” Dean said. “We are probably going to wait until after the president presents his budget on Feb. 3 to unveil any proposal. We want to see his assumptions and then test them against ours.”

Dean said he has been considering a tax cut since last September and denied raising it as an issue in response to retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark, who offered his own tax cut for the middle class Monday in Nashua.

“One of the things that has delayed putting this out is I am on the road for 100 straight days and that’s prevented a deliberative analysis,” Dean said. “The payroll tax is the obvious place to go because it is the most regressive tax there is.”

Interesting - he's been considering it since last september? Dean Nation first raised the issue in June - I think we did play a role in bringing the idea to the fore. It's wise to wait until after the President presents his budget, though, because it will make the distinctions between Bush's elite/corporation-centric policy and Dean's middle and lower class support more clear.