Published: November 03, 2008 08:38 am      

Curnock disputes Edwards’ radio ad

Republican candidate Rob Curnock wants to raise taxes by 30 percent — according, that is, to a radio ad run by U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards’, D-Waco, campaign.

Curnock calls the ad a blatant distortion of the facts.

Curnock, a Waco businessman, is competing against Edwards in Tuesday’s election for the District 17 Congressional seat. District 17 stretches from Hood County to Grimes County and includes Johnson County.

Curnock, the ad states, supports a 30 percent national sales tax, which would apply to all new purchases including houses, food, medicine for children and senior citizens and other items. Curnock’s plan would end the home mortgage deduction and add $30 to the cost of $100 bag of groceries, according to the ad.

Curnock said none of it is true.

“The 30 percent ad has backfired on him [Edwards],” Curnock said. “Most people I’ve talked to are just laughing at it. It’s so ludicrous given that I’m the candidate campaigning on cutting taxes.”

The idea, Curnock said, is to consider alternatives the current tax structure.

“All I’ve said all along is that we need to find a way to fix the tax code, which is unfair and a mess,” Curnock said. “I’ve said I’d like to get rid of the IRS and that I’m open to looking at anything be it a national sales tax or fair tax. But I’ve never dreamed of proposing anything like 30 percent. That’s ridiculous.”

Curnock, however, voiced support of a national sales tax or fair tax in this and previous elections, Edwards said.

“The fair tax is a specific bill,” Edwards said. “And experts say that to get rid of the income tax and replace it with a sales tax, you would have to tax at 30 percent to make as much revenue.”

The fair tax proposals lists a rate of 23 percent, Edwards said, but that would be in addition to sales tax rates Americans already pay on purchases.

Curnock said his intention to study options to the current tax system doesn’t mean he will ultimately support a given program, but he remains open to considering various options. Curnock added he is not “wedded” to any number and said the rate would probably be lower.

“He said he hasn’t done the math yet,” Edwards said. “But if he’s been pushing this proposal for three elections, it’s probably about time to do the math.”

Many items such as food, medicine and possibly some clothing and other items could be exempted from any fair tax program, Curnock said.

Doing so would simply raise the needed rate above 30 percent on those items still taxed to make up the revenue shortfall, Edwards said.

“Otherwise, you’d have to cut spending on defense or something else, or explode the federal deficit,” Edwards said.

A fair tax system would prove burdensome to poor and middle class workers, Edwards said, because it would claim a larger portion of their income than it would for those in the upper-earnings brackets.

Such proposals were dismissed for just such reasons, Edwards said, in a study undertaken under President Bush.

Support for change from the current system to something along the lines of a fair tax system is growing, Curnock said, among Republicans and Democrats.

The major goal, he said, is to look at all reasonable ideas in an effort to cut tax rates and simplify the tax code.

“But again, I’ve never proposed anything like a 30 percent increase,” Curnock said. “This [ad] is politics at its worst.”