Van Dam criticizes Bennett

Paul Van Dam is hoping to send Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, a few postcards after a statewide campaign tour.

Instead of panoramic pictures, however, the black-and-white cards will simply ask Bennett what happened to his idea of making it simple enough for Americans to file their taxes on a postcard. Van Dam, a former Utah attorney general, hopes to collect 50,000 postcards during the four-day, eight-city journey with which he is officially launching his campaign to unseat the two-term Republican.

Along with postcard tax filing, Van Dam also questioned Bennett's 1990s support for a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution and his current "rubber stamp" support of President George Bush's tax policies, which have driven the deficit to more than $500 million. That deficit has created the possibility of burdening the next generation with the debt while threatening current assistance programs, like Social Security or Medicare, possibly making life more difficult for the elderly.

"Our government made sacred promises to the citizens of this country that they would have income and health care during their later years," Van Dam said during a speech at the Central City Recreation Center. "This administration's reckless disregard of the fiscal health of America will inevitably lead to breaking those sacred promises."

That criticism is unfounded, however, and even inaccurate, said Mary Jane Collipriest, Bennett's spokeswoman.

"Nobody is saying that the deficit isn't a problem, and it is a concern for Mr. Bennett," she said. "But in relation to the economy, it's lower than the deficits we have had in the past."

As for the postcards, Collipriest said that Bennett recently passed a bill in Congress that will start the process of tax reform and tax simplification, and making sweeping changes such as Bennett hopes to see is not something that can be accomplished overnight.

"That's how tax reform begins," she said. "It's not a quick process."

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