Gore's plan offers targeted tax cuts

America's priorities can be determined by how we decide to spend our collective resources. This year's election highlights the key distinctions between how Democrats and Republicans spend our money. Democrats support targeted tax cuts focused on our national priorities, such as education and health care, just to name two.\nRight here in Southern Indiana, the candidates running to represent you in Congress have vastly different priorities. Dr. Paul Perry, the Democratic contender, has made health-care reform his central issue throughout the campaign, pledging to keep HMOs and insurance companies from making decisions regarding your health care. \nRecognizing the tremendous burden the costs of prescription drugs can put on working families, he will fight for prescription drug coverage to reduce that burden, so no family will have to decide between life-saving drugs and paying other bills.\nOn the national scene, Vice President Al Gore proposes a college tax credit and a 3 percent increase in national school spending, with increases in teacher salaries and more resources for pre-school programs. Across the country, school districts are in such dire need of teachers and principals they often have to hire college graduates without any teacher education. Teachers are an important part of our future economic viability, and to entice quality college students into a career in education, we must be willing to pay teachers a decent wage.\n"Al Gore is proposing a comprehensive tax plan with more than $500 billion in targeted tax relief for working families. The Gore tax cut will promote economic growth and encourage savings, and will fit within a responsible budget framework, one which ensures America is debt-free by 2012, saves Social Security and strengthens Medicare," according to a Gore-Lieberman press release.\n"Throughout his career, Al Gore has fought for targeted tax relief to help working families. He has fought to expand the Earned Income Tax Credit, helped deliver a $500 child tax credit and worked for passage of Hope Scholarships to make the first years of college universally available. The result: the lowest federal tax burden in more than two decades for a typical middle-income family," the release said.\nFor college students and their families, Gore has proposed a $10,000 per person tax credit to help everyone who wants to attend college. The vice president recognizes the global economy in which we now live requires a well-educated and well-trained work force ready to compete one-on-one with any other country.\nImprove Education and Training\n• Tax credits, School Modernization Bonds and Qualified Zone Academy Bonds during two years to modernize as many as 6,000 schools\n• The College Opportunity Tax Cut that allows families to take a $10,000 per student tax credit or tax deduction for tuition\n• Save money for education with Tuition Savings Accounts\n• Create 401(j) Life-Long Learning Accounts that can be withdrawn and used tax-free if they are used for education or qualified life-long learning\n• Assist workers, up to $6,000, in obtaining training courses or certification programs that improve information technology skills\nHelp Families Afford Health Care\n• Making health insurance more affordable and more accessible for small businesses through a 25 percent tax credit for premium costs for each small-business employee that decides to join a purchasing coalition\n• Assuring tax equity through a new tax credit for individual health insurance\n"I am proposing," Gore said, "an economic policy that's tried and tested, and built on our values -- fiscal discipline as the foundation and a new generation of investments to empower our people and unleash their potential. No runaway spending, no paybacks for the powerful interests and no budget-busting tax proposals."\nWe need to decide if we put our focus on health care and education or tax cuts for the wealthy. \nEducation and health care, together with targeted tax cuts for working, low- and middle-income families, are the Democratic plan for a more prosperous economy.