Fabricated figure

To the editor:

George Bush’s 2004 campaign “attack ads” now appearing on television are designed to present him in a positive light while discrediting his political opponents. The ads contain some smoothly crafted statements of deception and distortion.

Bush’s recently aired “100 Days” attack ad states that John Kerry’s plans for new government spending in his first 100 days in office will raise taxes by at least $900 billion. That would be a staggering increase if it were true, but the claim is, in fact, a completely fabricated figure and is seemingly designed to do more than just smear Kerry. This appears to be another “shock and awe” sort of tactic meant to produce feelings of intense worry and helplessness in already financially stressed American taxpayers, as was the intended emotional impact on the Iraqi people when George Bush ordered the bombing of Iraq. Calculated use of bold scare tactics is evident in both of these situations.

Know the simple truth. Kerry has promised that he will lower taxes on working families with annual incomes below $200,000 (98 percent of Americans) and repeal the Bush tax cuts for families with incomes above that level. Only those higher income families would return to paying higher pre-Bush tax rates.

We will continue to see negative campaigning and aggressive slamming of political opponents well into November. Unfortunately, that has become the norm in many lively political contests, but claims made by candidates of any political party that are clearly lies cannot be tolerated.

Donald Moss,

Lawrence