Obama: Raising Taxes In This Economy "Last Thing You Want To Do."
"Like Reagan at Reyjkavik," James Pethokoukis writes, Republicans backed away from a deficit reduction plan that would have resulted in a "permanently bigger government and a lot more tax revenue to fund it."
Stephen F. Hayes writes at the Weekly Standard that Obama demanded more than $1 trillion in tax increases and rejected a GOP proposal to seek $2.5 trillion in spending cuts and reforms. Which is odd for many reasons, not the least of which is because, as Hayes points out, Obama has only recently admitted that raising taxes in a bad economy is a horrible idea.
So things are going horribly for Obama right now. Let's look at how MSNBC's Chuck Todd puts it:
*** Walking away: Six months ago, how many Republicans would have believed: 1) that the Obama White House would have backed a plan to reduce the deficit by $4 trillion over the next 10 years; 2) that the president would agree to link the debt limit to spending cuts; and 3) that Obama would put Medicare and Social Security on the table? The Tea Party and deficit hawks like Jim DeMint would have won the argument when it comes to debt, and they would have achieved something -- especially on Medicare and Social Security -- they’d probably never get under a Republican president, unless he or she had a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. But Republicans walked away from the deal, because they wouldn’t give up the one thing that Democrats were asking for in return: any increases in tax hikes for the rich
Are you kidding me? So nice to see how hard the media is working to help Obama out of this mess.
- Comment (4)
- · Quote
- · UnfollowFollow (0)
Comments :
May '10
Re: Obama: Raising Taxes In This Economy "Last Thing You Want To Do."
I hope a smaller agreement without Obama's massive tax hikes can be hammered out, but it seems pretty obvious Democrats will not remove their flag from the class warfare hill. Which may be a good thing: there's a dramatic contrast here, and one party is horribly wrong.
Whatever happens, I'm optimistic Speaker Boehner will get the job done - and he had better, because this fight has implications far beyond November '12!
Jun '10
Re: Obama: Raising Taxes In This Economy "Last Thing You Want To Do."
Mollie, I posted this a week ago on the effect of tax hikes for the rich when Ben Stein was promoting them.
http://ricochet.com/member-feed/Ben-Stein-Jumps-The-Shark
Assuming that these resourceful millionaires and billionaires are static in their behavior and do nothing to react to higher taxes ( which will never happen ) my research shows a total income from this elite group of between 900 and 950 billion dollars annually. They are already paying 36% of that in taxes. If you raise their rates to 50% (a 40% increase), a total of 130 billion more would be confiscated annually. Ah, I just realized, it's the, beyond the gulag, 10 year plan. It is gubmint speak. Now I understand the trillion dollars in taxes they think they will get from the rich. So they spend money like crazy today, they tax like mad immediately and forever, they can increase the cost of government by 25 to 30 percent immediately. They can increase the cumulative deficit from 9 trillion to over 14 trillion in a little more than two short years, but when it comes to cutting back, well now we need 10 to 12 years.
May '10
Re: Obama: Raising Taxes In This Economy "Last Thing You Want To Do."
Obama just doesn't seem to be Winning the Future, does he? He's in a defensive crouch, and the fact that his Press enforcers have to go to such lengths to defend him doesn't indicate he's in a strong position.And it's entirely his fault. He wouldn't abandon his dreams of a European state long enough to tend to the economy. Just went full speed ahead and scared away all the jobs in the process.
Dec '10
Re: Obama: Raising Taxes In This Economy "Last Thing You Want To Do."
I'd rather entrust the messaging of the GOP to the first 400 Ricochet members than the entire Republican establishment.
In Bush's worst year for deficits, 2007, the budget year before the Democrats took control of Congress and therefore control of the budget, the annual deficit was between a third and a fourth of each of Obama's deficits for the last two years running. Prior to 2007, the Bush deficits were 1/10th of Obama's deficits.
Republicans want to maintain or lower tax rates on the wealthiest Americans not for the sake of the wealthiest, but for the sake of the unemployed. Where else will the jobs come from now that the census is over?
Would America's creditors have more confidence in our financial future if we reduced America's deficit spending by 4 thousand billion over the next 10 years, or if we went back to 2007-level spending this year or next?
Paraphrase Marco Rubio: We need more people employed in the private sector to become prosperous enough to pay taxes, not more taxes on the few prosperous people remaining.
C'mon GOP! This is not that difficult.