CLEVELAND, OH (Talon News) — In June, presidential candidate Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) blasted President George W. Bush’s tax cuts. But the cash-strapped Kucinich campaign on Friday urged supporters to send those tax credits to the campaign to help Kucinich’s fundraising.
Kucinich’s communications director, Jeff Cohen, sent out the call for supporters to make the donations early Friday afternoon. “As a father, I am writing you about Dennis Kucinich. Some of us have just received child tax credits from the IRS and others will be receiving their checks in the coming weeks, up to $400 per child,” Cohen said.
“I am asking you to donate all or part of that check to the Kucinich for President Campaign … for your children and all children,” Cohen said, terming it a “peace dividend toward our children’s future.”
Cohen urged supporters to “invest” in the campaign and “pass all or part of (the tax credit) on to Kucinich.”
In June, however, Kucinich attacked Bush for bringing about these tax cuts. During a rally in Minnesota, Kucinich reportedly called the tax cuts “a grab by powerful economic interests.”
He continued by saying, “That means cuts in services, education, housing, health care, veterans’ benefits. I’ll cancel the tax cuts,” Kucinich promised explaining that the cuts would “bankrupt” the nation.
In April, Kucinich called for eliminating the tax cuts. During a rally in Santa Fe, Kucinich said, “If America is going to address this social agenda then we have to give up war and we need to give up these tax cuts.”
Kucinich also said, “An America that advocates tax cuts for the wealthy and war is not an America that can simultaneously meet the needs of the people in this country for health care, for education, for retirement security, and certainly for jobs.”
The need for campaign cash may be behind the call from his campaign staffer. The Kucinich campaign, according to a Talon News analysis, raised only $1.7 million to support his candidacy between January and June.
In comparison, Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) had raised $15.9 million during the same period.
Questions posed by Talon News about the request for tax credit checks went unanswered by the Kucinich campaign.
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