Appearing on the July 6 edition of FOX News Channel's Hannity & Colmes, former Republican vice-presidential nominee Jack Kemp asked the following about Senator John Edwards (D-NC): “How can he [Edwards] say that he wants to help the poor by raising taxes?”

Both Edwards and his presidential running mate, Senator John Kerry (D-MA), outlined economic proposals during the Democratic primaries that call for rolling back tax cuts on the wealthiest Americans but preserving those for poor and middle-class families. According to CNN/Money senior writer Mark Gongloff, “Kerry wants to roll back tax cuts for families earning more than $200,000 per year. But he wants to keep the higher child tax credit, the lower marriage penalty and the new 10 percent tax bracket for lower-income families. He also calls for new tax credits for health care and college tuition."

CNN/Money's Gongloff also reported that, in addition to calling for new middle-class tax breaks (including “a $5,000 credit for first-time home buyers”; a "$1,000 credit for savings accounts"; and “a cut in the capital-gains tax rate, along with allowing the first $1,000 in capital gains and the first $500 in dividends to be tax-free”), Edwards “would repeal tax cuts -- including dividend and capital-gains tax cuts -- for what he says are the top two percent of Americans, those making $240,000 or more per year. ... Edwards would also adjust the tax code so that the top one percent pay the same tax rate on investment income that middle-class families pay for their wage and salary income, in order to fix what he calls the 'two tax systems' in America.”

Kemp is a syndicated columnist; "Conservative Columnist" for the Heritage Foundation's website Townhall.com; director of Empower America; former member of Congress (R-NY); and former secretary of Housing and Urban Development.