Obama on Tax Cuts, American History, George W. Bush, and the Tea Party
If you didn't watch Obama's CNBC town hall on "jobs" this morning, allow me to summarize the talking points:
- The Republicans want to use your money to give all the millionaires and billionaires a check for $100,000.
- People came to America because they felt the British government didn't represent them.
- Bush is to blame for our present economic woes. Obama inherited two tax cuts that weren't paid for, two wars that weren't paid for, and a lot of old people.
- The Tea Party needs to end the whole "cut spending" meme. They should specify whether they want to cut benefits for veterans, benefits for old people, or whether they want higher taxes. Those are the only three options.
Obama on tax cuts:
I think all of us are concerned about the deficit. ... What we’ve said is that we should extend tax cuts, tax relief for middle-class Americans like most of the audience here, because, first of all, you're the ones who didn’t see your wages or income rise...What the Republicans are proposing is that we, in addition to that, provide tax relief to primarily millionaires and billionaires. It would cost us $700 billion to do it. On average, millionaires would get a check of $100,000. And, by the way, I would be helped by this. So I just want to be clear. I’m speaking against my own financial interests. It is a irresponsible thing to do.
Obama on his understanding of American history:
I think that America has a noble tradition of being healthily skeptical about government. That’s in our DNA, right? I mean, we came in because, you know, the folks over on the other side of the Atlantic had been pressing folks without giving them representation. And so, we’ve always had a healthy skepticism about government. And so I think that’s a good thing.
Obama lashes out against George W. Bush and the Tea Party:
Government should pay its way. [I]t shouldn’t get so big that we’re leaving debt to the next generation. All those things I think are healthy. The problem that I've seen in the debate that’s taking places at some of these tea party events is that they're misidentifying who the culprits are here. ... We had to take some emergency steps last year. ... The long term problems are the problems that I talked about earlier. ... We had two tax cuts that weren’t paid for, two wars that weren’t paid for, a population that’s getting older ... but our taxes have actually substantially gone down. And so the challenge, I think, for the tea party movement is to identify specifically, 'What would you do?' It's not enough just to say, 'Get control of spending.' I think it’s important for you to say, 'I’m willing to cut veterans' benefits, or I’m willing to cut Medicare or Social Security benefits.' Or, 'I’m willing to see these taxes go up.'
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Comments :
Sep '10
Re: Obama on Tax Cuts, American History, George W. Bush, and the Tea Party
How much would we save if we simply cut all federal employee salaries and benefits by 25%?
Aug '10
Re: Obama on Tax Cuts, American History, George W. Bush, and the Tea Party
Keep talkin', Obama. I think people have figured out you don't get jobs from poor people. They realize that the "rich", i.e. small business owners like me, provide badly needed jobs.
Besides, the cost of extending the tax cuts for the "rich" would would cover 9 days of the deficit. That's right, read Alan Reynold's post here http://www.nationalreview.com/corner
Aug '10
Re: Obama on Tax Cuts, American History, George W. Bush, and the Tea Party
25% ? How about 50% at an attempt of gaining parity with the rest of the country ? After all, we don't a tea party where they toss federal employees into the Tidal Basin do we ?
Re: Obama on Tax Cuts, American History, George W. Bush, and the Tea Party
My favorite part is the history lesson.
Skepticism about government is in our DNA? Anarchy for all! Partition the White House! Comrade Housing Officer says there's room for 25 families there.
Sep '10
Re: Obama on Tax Cuts, American History, George W. Bush, and the Tea Party
This one always gets me fired up. Logic only a leftie could understand.
Was the stimulus "paid for"?
Obamacare "paid for"?
Two fell swoops of Obama's pen and he completely obliterates the fiscal sanity of our country. Yet he blames our predicament on the feds not being able to grub enough of a % away from the private economy?
May '10
Re: Obama on Tax Cuts, American History, George W. Bush, and the Tea Party
Obama's speech to the Hispanic Caucus included a noteworthy omission. Obama probably skipped those words because he's a secularist, but some believe it implies that Obama thinks rights are endowed by government. He might indeed believe that.
What government gives, it can take away as it pleases.
Edited on Sep 20, 2010 at 1:16pmMay '10
Re: Obama on Tax Cuts, American History, George W. Bush, and the Tea Party
flownover
25% ? How about 50% at an attempt of gaining parity with the rest of the country?
Because the idea is sophomoric. Meat axes are emotionally satisfying, saving the effort of thinking. Categorizing the Assistant Deputy Under Assistant Associate Director of OMB- Paper Clip Color Coordination as needing a 25% cut in pay (which is probably appropriate) as being in the same boat as the GS-7 night watchman at Idaho National Lab where they have all of our nuclear secrets is silly.
The studies that compare 30 year teacher salaries (local school board public employees) with janitors at Ft. Leonard Wood suffer from "broad brush" syndrome. We don't even know the breakdown between federal and local.
The approach to take is to go back 3 years and review every new slot created and filled since 2007. Then apply zero-based budgeting to all departments, let them justify every head.
The Office of Personnel Management needs to look at Washington-based grade structure and headcount. But most public-private salary mismatches are state/local.
Jul '10
Re: Obama on Tax Cuts, American History, George W. Bush, and the Tea Party
And this gets more pathetic as it goes along... a packed house of Obama supporters, scripted and choreographed and media supplied supplicants, so he can tell them why he is 'right' again? This is the White House version of open forum? This is the same display of 'nonpartisan' rhetoric that got Obamcare passed and made him the peoples president? And finally his use of the self serving "I" concerning everything, 'We the People' doesn't seem to register with this individual.
'We' can only hope that the partisanship and self serving facade has finally fallen away from people who can now see the real intent of this president to believe in himself and his divinity.
As a small business owner these are not 'imagined' issues, I will be dealing with them from now on... thanks for the 'help'.
Sep '10
Re: Obama on Tax Cuts, American History, George W. Bush, and the Tea Party
People came to America because they felt the British government didn't represent them.
Obama was an assistant lecturer of law not history. You can't expect him to remember everything - especially when the history relates to the racist, white slaveholders who founded this country.
Jul '10
Re: Obama on Tax Cuts, American History, George W. Bush, and the Tea Party
The notion that a tax cut must be (or can be) "paid for" is arrant nonsense that has somehow become part of the liberal zeitgeist.
The classic red herring about "what exactly will you cut" is also classic President Obama. Rep Paul Ryan has been very, very specifric, and others are following suit.
Sep '10
Re: Obama on Tax Cuts, American History, George W. Bush, and the Tea Party
Anyone else sick to death of the whole "inherited" meme yet? Let me be the first to apologize for forcing you to be President, Mr. Obama. I somehow was under the impression you wanted the job. I would be happy to accept your resignation and provide with a sterling recommendation letter to further you in more worthwhile pursuits, but, unfortunately, your replacement won't be available for about two more years. Guess you'll have to just soldier on till then.