Fisking Kerry from Debate. Question 5

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Question #5

VARNER: Thank you. Senator Kerry, would you be willing to look directly into the camera and, using simple and unequivocal language, give the American people your solemn pledge not to sign any legislation that will increase the tax burden on families earning less than $200,000 a year during your first term?

KERRY: Absolutely. Yes. Right into the camera. Yes. I am not going to raise taxes. I have a tax cut. And here's my tax cut.

See John lie. See John lie looking right into the camera. See, John is either really good at lying, or he can't do math well enough to realize he is delusional.

I raise the child-care credit by $1,000 for families to help them be able to take care of their kids. I have a $4,000 tuition tax credit that goes to parents — and kids, if they're earning for themselves — to be able to pay for college. And I lower the cost of health care in the way that I described to you. Every part of my program I've shown how I'm going to pay for it.

Of course I'm leaving it as an exercise for the reader as to how I'd pass this with a Republican majority in the House and Senate.

And I've gotten good people, like former Secretary of the Treasury Bob Rubin, for instance, who showed how to balance budgets and give you a good economy, to help me crunch these numbers and make them work.

Nobody but your paid flunkies believe those numbers.

I've even scaled back some of my favorite programs already, like the child-care program I wanted to fund and the national service program, because the president's deficit keeps growing and I've said as a pledge, "I'm going to cut the deficit in half in four years." Now, I'm going to restore what we did in the 1990s, ladies and gentlemen: pay as you go. We're going to do it like you do it. The president broke the pay-as-you-go rule.

News flash: 9/11. War. Recession. Duh.

Somebody here asked the question about, "Why haven't you vetoed something?" It's a good question. If you care about it, why don't you veto it? I think John McCain called the energy bill the "No Lobbyist Left Behind" bill. I mean, you've got to stand up and fight somewhere, folks. I'm pledging I will not raise taxes; I'm giving a tax cut to the people earning less than $200,000 a year. Now, for the people earning more than $200,000 a year, you're going to see a rollback to the level we were at with Bill Clinton, when people made a lot of money. And looking around here, at this group here, I suspect there are only three people here who are going to be affected: the president, me, and, Charlie, I'm sorry, you too. (LAUGHTER)

A Kerry joke that worked. The earth shakes. Besides, he's counting on none of those in the audience being employed by or owning an S-Corp.