Runyan's run for Congress is short on fiscal details

Republican congressional nominee Jon Runyan called for cuts in taxes and spending Tuesday, saying: "We have to put money back in the people's hands."

At an afternoon news conference, however, he could offer no details of the costs or consequences of his ideas.

"I haven't run the whole gamut of the numbers," he said. "They're just commonsense ideas that I think will really affect people."

For individuals, Runyan would cut federal income taxes 15 percent, eliminate taxes on Social Security and unemployment checks, increase the child tax credit, cut capital gains and dividend taxes in half, ease restrictions on personal retirement plans, and repeal the inheritance tax and alternative minimum taxes. He would cap corporate taxes at 25 percent.

Runyan is running against freshman Democratic U.S. Rep. John Adler in the Third District, which runs through Burlington and Ocean Counties and includes Cherry Hill in Camden County.

In an e-mailed statement, Adler's campaign manager, Geoff Mackler, wrote, "The middle class, seniors and small businesses deserve real tax relief and lower deficits, not Jon Runyan's plan that will explode the national debt in order to provide the wealthy and special interests with tax cuts. Our nation cannot afford more debt, or Mr. Runyan's giveaways to special interests."

Runyan could not say how much revenue his proposals would cut. He said, though, that he would cut government spending to match the lost revenue, which he said President George W. Bush failed to do when he cut taxes.

Runyan suggested that if spending and the number of government workers were pared back to 2008 levels, almost $1 trillion could be saved.

He left the details to a "Red Ink Task Force" that would review spending and outline cuts.