Kaine backs aspects of Obama's tax increases on wealthy Americans

Former Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine (D) supports President Obama's broad outline to pay for his jobs bill including allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire for some wealthy Americans, his campaign told The Hill.

"Governor Kaine believes Congress should act quickly to put more Americans back to work. As he's said before, the legislation should be paid for by rolling back tax breaks for the wealthiest individuals and companies who don't need them," said Kaine spokeswoman Brandi Hoffine Tuesday evening. "If only George Allen shared that same commitment to paying for legislation when he served in the Senate we would not be facing the debt crisis we are today."

Kaine, who also has served as chairman of the Democratic National Committee, is running against former Sen. George Allen (R-Va.) for Allen's old Senate seat. Both parties have made the race a high priority.

A majority of Americans seem to support raising taxes on the wealthy. A New York Times/CBS News poll released Wednesday showed that 56 percent of Americans supported raising taxes on Americans who make more than $250,000 annually to reduce the deficit, while 37 percent opposed the plan.

But some centrist Democrats — including retiring Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.), whose seat Kaine and Allen are seeking, and Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), who faces a tough reelection fight next year — have criticized the idea. Kaine supports repealing President George W. Bush's tax breaks for those who make more than $1 million a year.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee accused Kaine of "being shifty" and moving away from Obama on the plan in a statement earlier on Wednesday, but Kaine's campaign told the Richmond Times-Dispatch the same thing late last week.

Allen's campaign criticized Kaine's stance.

"Like anyone would expect from a loyal DNC chairman, Tim Kaine is one of the first Democrat Senate candidates out of the gate to embrace President Obama’s $1.5 trillion tax increase," said Allen spokesman Bill Riggs. "This isn’t surprising, considering he has a long track record of supporting higher taxes in a weak economy, proposing $4 billion in tax increases when he was governor, as Virginia lost more than 100,000 jobs."

"Chairman Kaine’s support for this job-crushing tax hike just proves what we already knew," continued Riggs." Chairman Kaine wants to be senator for President Obama, George Allen will be senator for Virginia."

Updated at 3:20 p.m. on Sept. 22 to include more details of Kaine's position.

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