Tom Harkin: “Mr. Rove and the political advisers to the President may think it is good politics, but it is terribly damaging to our…”

“Mr. Rove and the political advisers to the President may think it is good politics, but it is terribly damaging to our economy. Again, I refer to some Republicans in this Congress and in this administration who support this plan, and I said they should properly be called ``red ink Republicans'' because they seem to have absolutely no concern about pushing plans that will skyrocket the deficit and the national debt. Mr. Broder goes on in the last couple of paragraphs to point out: Over time, eliminating this tax-- The dividend tax-- would likely deepen the growing budget deficits. The first round of Bush tax cuts will cost more than $1.3 trillion in revenue over 10 years. This package-- This new package-- pushes the costs to the $2 trillion level--even as the demands of homeland defense, the war on terrorism and a possible attack on Iraq add to spending pressures. But none of this is likely to deter Bush. His arguments are flexible, but the policy is constant: Keep cutting taxes from the top down. Now we are talking about more than $2 trillion in deficits. I guess the times have changed. Former Senator Everett Dirksen of Illinois once said: A billion here and a billion there, and pretty soon you are talking about real money. We have to revise that. Now it is a trillion here and a trillion there and pretty soon you are talking about real money. And, that is before we add huge additional sums in interest to be paid on the debt.”