Lee Fisher on Tax Reform

Let Bush tax cuts expire for millionaires

"Let's focus first on what policies got us into this recession," said Fisher, "because we can't afford to go back to the same people and the same policies that dug us the deepest economic ditch in most of our lifetimes."

Portman painted Fisher as the status quo responsible for the economic woes.

2005 tax cut reduced Ohio taxes by 16.8%

Fisher said Portman has backed trade policies that have sent Ohio jobs overseas. He repeatedly sought to tie Portman to economic policies of former President George W. Bush, in whose administration Portman served as trade representative.

Portman said Fisher's proposals would mean job-killing higher taxes. "You can't continue to raise taxes," he said.

Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland implemented a tax cut in 2005 that resulted in state income taxes that are 16.8 percent less than they were in 2004, said a spokeswoman for Fisher, Ohio's lieutenant governor [under Strickland].

Let tax cuts on wealthy expire, to pay for health reform

It would of course be naive to think that reform has no cost. We must look at a wide variety of other mechanisms to provide the funds needed for reform. For example:

• Allowing tax cuts to expire for the wealthiest Americans making more than $250,000 a year.
• Implementing electronic medical records to save costs in administrative overhead and cut down on costly errors.
• Cracking down on Medicare and Medicaid fraud
• Improving preventive care to reduce costly procedures and medical emergencies.
• Providing doctors and patients with the latest medical research they need to prescribe the most effective treatments.
• Reforming payment systems for Medicare and other private insurance providers.