President Barack Obama’s treasury secretary said Sunday he cannot rule out higher taxes to help tame an exploding budget deficit, and his chief economic adviser would not dismiss raising them on middle-class Americans as part of a health care overhaul.
As the White House sought to balance campaign rhetoric with governing, officials appeared willing to extend unemployment benefits. With former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan saying he is “pretty sure we’ve already seen the bottom” of the recession, Obama aides sought to defend the economic stimulus and calm a jittery public.
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and National Economic Council Director Larry Summers both sidestepped questions on Obama’s intentions about taxes. Geithner said the White House was not ready to rule out a tax hike to lower the federal deficit; Summers said Obama’s proposed health care overhaul needs funding from somewhere.
“There is a lot that can happen over time,” Summers said, adding that the administration believes “it is never a good idea to absolutely rule things out, no matter what.”
No real surprise here. However it should be a phased tax increase with those who voted for Obama to be increased first.
Shocker! Who could’ve seen this coming?
As I said right after the election, Obama’s problems will come with governing — he will be at war either with his base or with the American people, probably both. I thought it might take a year, but we’re obviously there already.
Well, at least they are being honest for once and calling a spade a spade. There is simply no feasible way to continue the massive federal spending other than to raise taxes.
Change I can believe in!
“It is morally wrong to allow a sucker keep his money.” – WC Fields
Thanks, 53%!
Yep, paying for a GI bill, helping the car industry, extending unemployment, supporting local governments. I’m sure it would be great to have such things for free.
Of course we don’t know what middle class means in this story.
McCain does note that there is some ambivalence about the long term consequences. As Keynes remarked, “in the long run, we’re all dead.”
7, well it is always best not to define such terms when you want to pick their pockets.
[blockquote]Of course we don’t know what middle class means in this story. [/blockquote]
According to the Prez, isn’t it anyone earning less than $250k and above some base level, all of whom were promised that their taxes would not go up?
And late this afternoon the Obama White House announced that there would, indeed, be no increase of taxes for anyone making under $250,000. Of course, since this is the ‘Obamamessiah’ we are talking of it should be not even a trivial chore to come to a truly ‘loaves and fishes’ solution wherein Obama conjures up real tax revenue from no apparent source to give value to the many, many, many baskets of fiat money he has created out of thin air to pay for his jolly little adventure in socialist government.
Dilbertnomore, the problem is I don’t believe him, no matter what he says. We have to go with what he does rather than what he says.
It may come down to what the meaning of “tax” is. For instance, when cigarette taxes go up, lots of people making under a quarter million pay. And if the carbon bill goes through, this will be essentially a tax increase on energy which will raise everybody’s costs, and as usual, the poor will suffer more from that than the affluent will.
Katherine, there must be something we can believe about Obama. He is on record as holding both the affirmative and the negative on just about every side of every issue.
Actually, the real problem is what to do about those of us who choose not to decide what not to believe about him. I guess that’s why he is the ‘Obamamessiah’. Just to be consistent, I choose not to believe anything he says. Just much less messy that way. And since he is taking us to Hell in a handbasket, I prefer not to be responsible for giving him any support in his damnable mission.
I hope that the liberals will pay their taxes with a cheerful heart instead of the cry ” tax the rich”.
‘Read my lips.’
I’m holding my breath and assuming that those of us earning under $150,000 are the underclass and far from being the middle class.
#15, next year, come April 15, and at the end of the year, when you examine you expenses versus income, ask yourself about your breath holding and assumptions (in the words of Dr. Phil), “How’s that working for you? It may work fine. But, not if the CBO is correct. Something will have to give if the Administration stays with this spending policy it is on – either taxes will have to go up tremendously or paper money will have to be printed which will cause inflation – both of which will cause job loss. Look at the latest IRS numbers regarding who pays the taxes: 37% of all taxes paid by individuals were paid by 0.7% of the taxpayers, those with Adjusted Gross Incomes (AGI) over $500,000. ($413,196,383 of $1,115,601,803 taxes by 1,040,662 of 142,978,806 returns)
55% of all taxes paid by individuals were paid by 3% of the taxpayers, those with AGI over $200,000. ($609,577,012 by 4,524,021 returns)
75% of all taxes paid by individuals were paid by 13% of the taxpayers, those with AGI over $100,000. ($838,264,559 by 17,907,738 returns)
84% of all taxes paid by individuals were paid by 21% of the taxpayers, those with AGI over $75,000. ($932,097,309 by 29,466,715 returns)
92% of all taxes paid by individuals were paid by 33% of the taxpayers, those with AGI over $50,000. ($1,028,979,639 by 47,783,830 returns)
Let’s look at the numbers from the other end:
33% of the returns filed paid NO tax. (46,709,055 of 142,978,806 total returns filed).
67% of the returns only paid 8% of all the taxes paid by individuals. ($86,622,164 by 95,194,975 returns)
I don’t think this spending spree can be paid for by increasing the already 50% income tax on just 3% of income tax filers. So I suspect, Bill C., you are in for a disappointment (and don’t turn blue holding your breath much longer).