Cheney: Downturn looms if Bush tax cuts are scrapped

Vice President Cheney on Wednesday warned of a calamitous economic downturn should the next Congress and president allow the Bush tax cuts to expire.

The potential tax increases would “place a staggering burden on the nation’s households,” Cheney said in a speech to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Board of Directors. The vice president estimated that, if the cuts are not renewed, Americans’ taxes will increase by a total of $280 billion per year and that Americans in the lowest tax brackets will “take the biggest hit.”

{mosads}The Bush tax cuts have become a major point of contention in the general election. At a campaign rally on Monday, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) criticized Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) support for the Bush tax cuts, calling it and any further cuts “irresponsible” and “outrageous.”

McCain responded on Tuesday in a speech to the National Federation of Independent Business, asserting that Obama would “enact the single largest tax increase since the Second World War.” The Arizona senator promised “to promote growth and opportunity” by keeping taxes low.

In his remarks, Cheney vehemently supported domestic and offshore oil drilling to alleviate high gas prices, noting that China has begun offshore drilling 60 miles from Florida. Cheney quipped that “even the Communists have figured out that the answer to high prices is more supply.”