evilolive --
I am confident that the votes referred to on the Bush campaign's
website are those made by Sen. Kerry in 1997 and 1998 on H.R. 2646 (as
approved by a House/Senate Conference Committee). The bill, which was
known as the "Education Savings Act for Public and Private Schools,"
was passed by both houses of Congress in 1998, but was vetoed by
President Clinton.
Sen. Kerry's votes on motions, amendments and on final passage were,
it is very safe to say, based on his opposition to the creation of
favorable tax treatment for educational expenses of families who send
their children to religious or private schools and colleges.
Here is support for those conclusions, which I have tried to organize
in a way that will be most useful to you.
First, here is a link to a summary of the legislation that was
included in the Conference Report accompanying the final version of
H.R. 2646 that was passed by the House and the Senate:
U.S. Senate: Republican Policy Committee
http://www.senate.gov/~rpc/releases/1998/aplus-conf.htm
Note that this summary includes the following paragraph relating
specifically to (public and private) college tuition:
"H.R. 2646 provides an exclusion from gross income for distributions
made from a qualified state tuition program that are used for tuition
and other expenses related to attending college (including graduate
school) or vocational school. Beginning in 2006, private colleges or a
group of private colleges will be allowed to offer pre-paid tuition
programs. Contributions to such accounts are limited to $5,000 per
year and $50,000 in the aggregate per beneficiary."
Next, here is a link to a simple list of Sen. Kerry's votes in 1997
and 1998 on education issues, including eleven entries on the
Education Savings Act for Public and Private Schools:
Project Vote Smart: John Kerry Votes: Education: 1997
http://www.vote-smart.org/voting_category_subject.php?can_id=S0421103&category_name=Education&year=1997
Project Vote Smart: John Kerry Votes: Education: 1998
http://www.vote-smart.org/voting_category_subject.php?can_id=S0421103&category_name=Education&year=1998
Now, here is a breakdown of the six votes that have been highlighted
by the Bush campaign:
"Voted Six Times Against Expanded Education Savings Accounts, Which
Would Have Provided $4 Billion In Tax Savings.
"Voted to filibuster this bill four times.
H.R. 2646, CQ Vote #288: Motion Rejected 56-41: R 54-1; D 2-40,
10/30/97, Kerry Voted Nay;
H.R. 2646, CQ Vote #291: Motion Rejected 56-44: R 54-1; D 2-43,
11/3/97, Kerry Voted Nay;
H.R. 2646, CQ Vote #38: Motion Rejected 55-44: R 55-0; D 0-44,
3/19/98, Kerry Voted Nay;
H.R. 2646, CQ Vote #46: Motion Rejected 58-42: R 55-0; D 3-42,
3/26/98, Kerry Voted Nay;
______
"H.R. 2646, CQ Vote #102: Passed 56-43: R 51-3; D 5-40, 4/23/98, Kerry Voted Nay;
"H.R. 2646, CQ Vote #169: Adopted 59-36: R 51-2; D 8-34, 6/24/98, Kerry Voted Nay.
"Senate Republican Policy Committee, ?A-Plus Education Savings
Accounts/Cloture,? 10/31/97)"
Free Republic: John Kerry
http://209.157.64.200/focus/f-news/1119177/posts
The reasons that Kerry voted the way he did on matters related to this
legislation are undoubtedly reflected in the veto message that was
delivered by President Clinton on July 21, 1998. Here is the central
paragraph, along with a link to the entire message:
"By sending me this bill, the Congress has instead chosen to weaken
public education and shortchange our children. The modifications to
the Education IRAs that the bill would authorize are bad education
policy and bad tax policy. The bill would divert limited Federal
resources away from public schools by spending more than $3 billion on
tax benefits that would do virtually nothing for average families and
would disproportionately benefit the most affluent families. More than
70 percent of the benefits would flow to families in the top 20
percent of income distribution, and families struggling to make ends
meet would never see a penny of the benefits. Moreover, the bill would
not create a meaningful incentive for families to increase their
savings for educational purposes; it would instead reward families,
particularly those with substantial incomes, for what they already
do."
Library of Congress: Education Savings and School Excellence Act
of1998--Veto Message From the President or the United States (House of
Representatives - July 21, 1998)
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?r105:23:./temp/~r105xgUUT0::
Additional Information:
If you are interested in delving further into this subject, here is a
link to the Library of Congress page that provides links to many of
the Congressional documents that pertain to H.R. 2646:
Library of Congress: Search: H.R. 2646
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?r105:@OR+(+@1(H.R.+2646)++@1(H.+R.+2646)++)
Here is a link to the breakdown of the final Senate vote on H.R. 2646:
U.S. Senate: Roll Call: H.R. 2646
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=105&session=2&vote=00169
Search Strategy:
There is very much online information and misinformation related to
the current Presidential campaign that is potentially relevant to your
question. This research involved sifting through a great deal of
potentially relevant websites in order to find the material that
interests you and have reasonable confidence that what I have found is
accurate adn complete.
The following Google searches were among the very many that I used:
"education savings accounts" kerry
://www.google.com/search?num=30&hl=en&lr=&q=%22education+savings+accounts%22+kerry
"hr 2646" education 1998 private
://www.google.com/search?num=30&hl=en&lr=&q=%22hr+2646%22+1998+education+private
"hr 2646" 1998 education "veto message"
://www.google.com/search?num=30&hl=en&lr=&q=%22hr+2646%22+1998+education+%22veto+message%22
I am confident that this is the information you are looking for, and I
hope that the links and search strategy I have provided will help you
to explore this subject further. If anything is unclear, please ask
for clarification before rating the answer.
markj-ga |
