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Contact: David Hogberg 319-385-3462 Senator Harkin: Big Taxer, Big Spender Mt. Pleasant, IA – Is Senator Tom Harkin concerned about higher taxes and government waste? The answer to that question is “no” according to Public Interest Institute Research Analyst David Hogberg. In a pair of September INSTITUTE BRIEFS, Hogberg examines Senator Harkin’s record on government tax and spending issues. Hogberg says data compiled by National Taxpayers Union (NTU) shows Senator Harkin is the least concerned with high taxes of all of the members of the Iowa Congressional Delegation. Hogberg cites Senator Harkin’s votes on President Bush’s tax cut of 2001 as an example of the Senator’s dismal record. Senator Harkin voted for six amendments to the Bush tax cut, which would have maintained the estate tax—aka the “death tax”—if they had been adopted. On the issue of government spending and waste, Hogberg uses data compiled by Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) and National Taxpayers Union to examine Senator Harkin’s record. Hogberg says Senator Harkin’s CAGW lifetime rating puts him in the bottom third of the Senate on the issue of eliminating government waste. Hogberg notes Senator Harkin’s penchant for spending taxpayer dollars increases as his election nears. Hogberg says legislation sponsored or co-sponsored by Senator Harkin, which would increase government spending increased dramatically in 1996, when Senator Harkin faced re-election. It then dropped back in the following years, until 2001, the year before his latest reelection campaign.
For additional
information on these INSTITUTE BRIEFS, or any other Public Interest Institute
publications, you may contact PII at: (319) 385-3462 or log on to the PII web
site at: ####
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