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Burner's Tax Plan
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Darcy Burner released her tax plan, and not just the one where she says she wants to "raise a few."
The Seattle Times coverage of the release says: "Her opponent's campaign called the plan a 'gimmick'"... That doesn't tell the full tale. Amidst the dueling campaign memos, the Reichert campaign made this catch for the Fourth Estate:
*NOTE TO REPORTERS: In the first release of her *economic plan* Darcy Burner overlooked one rather important detail: current tax law prohibits taxpayers from both claiming the standard deduction while also itemizing the sales tax deduction (For that matter, under current law, taxpayers claiming the standard deduction cannot also claim any itemized deductions). This discrepancy was pointed out by a reporter during this morning's conference call. Her response? She would change that law too. If willing to change her plan this way on the fly, what will she change next?
Yes, that's right. Burner's original plan counted the saving from both doubling the standard deduction and making the sales tax deduction permanent. When pointed out you can't claim the sales tax deduction if not itemizing deductions, Burner's campaign less than helpfully pointed out: oh, we'll change that portion of the IRS code too.
A simple "oops" might have sufficed better. She's running for Congress, not the monarchy.
This all gets to one of the most annoying trends in Congressional candidates on both sides of the aisle: proclamations of grand plans that are guaranteed to whither even if they are elected. Funny thing, being a rookie among 435 members of Congress means the odds of you blowing up something as dreadfully complicated and with as much inertia as the US tax code are not terribly high.
Which reminds me, Burner is already on record saying she would like to see the tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 expire - a number of which provide immense direct and indirect benefits to the middle the class. After the fact she would like to revise and extend her remarks. Ok.
Here's the bottom line: whatever plans she would like to announce supposedly protecting the middle class - and that's a whole separate argument - Darcy Burner will be a vote for a Democratic tax plan in Congress.
After all, David Goldstein says "she's one of us." Darcy Burner (D-Netroots): nothing could go wrong there, right?
Exit question: if I was on an editorial board issuing an endorsement in this race, I would be awfully interested in asking Darcy Burner to state a position on pending free trade agreements with Colombia, Panama, and South Korea. The near universal opinion of both the local business and the local editorial board community is a resounding "yes" on those deals.
Meanwhile, Burner continues to dodge, duck, dip, dive...and dodge on answering those questions, even with the release of her economic plan talking about her position on trade.
Cross-posted at Sound Politics.
