Obama Re-Iterates Desire to Raise Taxes in Campaign-Style Event Post-Election

Four more years

At a campaign-style event at the White House Friday, President Barack Obama invited congressional leaders to the White House next week for talks on how to avoid spending cuts and at least some of the tax increases scheduled to occur in January. But he insisted that tax increases on the wealthiest Americans must be part of any deal.

Comments

[Alice P. Keaton]

Where IS Nancy Pelosi?

[dsc9wfree]

She is still celebrating in san fran...Too bad she won't stay there!!!

[KalkiDas]

I say, let them have it. One up them. Hang it around their necks in 2014 and 2016.

[Ayn Random Variation]

"Let me be clear, we must come together to formulate a fair, balanced, bi-partisan plan where we all agree to raise taxes just a little bit on those who can most afford it, and invest more in green infrastructure education."

[neoteny]

"... in a sustainable way so we can invest in vibrant communities."

[dsc9wfree]

"...raise taxes just a little bit..." - yeah, right!!

[DRM]

Hmm? The Republicans won the House. Why would the American people put the Republicans in charge of the body which originates all tax bills if they wanted Democratic policy on taxes?

Is constitutional law professor Obama too stupid to understand basics like the separation of powers, of does he think American voters are? And if the latter, why should what the voters want decide policy?

[Ardelle]

"I thought they were going to stop him on 10 when they told him what the blood pressure was," he said. "He just said, 'I'm going to keep going until either I pass out

or they take me off.' I kept saying, 'It doesn't matter to me. It's only a golf tournament. You've got many more.'"

[Stephdumas]

It might be too politically incorrect to ask but I wonder if they aren't afraid then a "rich flight" might happen just like the white flight and the black flight as well as the brain drain?

[Rick Santorum]

Horrors, the rich are all going to leave (lolno) and whatever will we do without their benevolence? IT'S ONLY THE WEALTHY THAT CAN SAVE US NOW (even though they've bent us over for the past 30 years with outsourcing, insourcing, lobbying, and bailouts).

[Johan Poonhammer]

You can fucking starve, for starters. Let me try to make this as simple as possible: I am a small-business owner. I employ 25 people. I am taxed as an individual, and my gross income falls well into the "over $250K" bracket. My profit margin is 10%. I reinvest most of that into new equipment and R&D. When my taxes go up, I'm going to have to fire people, and make those that remain work longer hours for less money. Alternatively, I'll fire everyone, sell my capital investments, and retire. Better yet, I'll outsource to the Chinese at $3.00 an hour, and increase my profit margins to 50%. Any way it goes, I'm keeping what's mine, and you can go stand in line for food stamps. Judging by your lack of foresight, I'm pretty sure you're already accustomed to that.

[Government Hack]

Don't the ultra rich already hold a lot of money outside of this country? I don't really know what Obama can do to get it back into the country to tax (eventually, after it is reinvested) without offering an immediate tax holiday.

[Rick Santorum]

Maybe we should stop catering to the rich and cater to the poor and middle class instead, mmkay?

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Maybe we should stop catering to the rich and cater to the poor and middle class instead, mmkay?

"GIBSMEDAT!!!"

[Johan Poonhammer]

Maybe you could try asking your poor or middle-class neighbor for a job...something other than cutting their grass.

[geo1113]

Obama: "The people have spoken. They are all in favor of raising someone else's taxes to pay for their share of the government largess."

[AnonoBot]

I think his reiteration needs to be rephrased,, and it goes something like this: he wants to raise taxes on the rich FIRST. When this move inevitably fails to balance the budget - because we know he's not going to agree to any meaningful spending cuts - what will his options be? He's going to have to either raise the rates on the rich even further until they approach almost 100% (which STILL wouldn't dent the deficit) or he's going to have to raise rates on those lower down on the totem pole so to speak. Either way, this is just a preliminary step toward higher rates for everyone.

[geo1113]

Since we are going towards European-style socialism, look for a European-style tax...VAT.

[Government Hack]

First Bush, now Obama.

16 years of pain, demagoguery and bullshit.

[gigarath6]

amen

[CBear]

Exactly. Cracks me up when people think fiscal cliff is about the 42Billion CBO says Obama's tax the rich will raise in 2013, and the 38 Billion it will raise in 2014 - that funds the federal gov't for 3 whole days!

What's not going away is Obamacare - therein lies the tax hike on the poor. Look at the functioning of the individual mandate - if your employer avoids the mandate, say by keeping only part-time workers, i.e. falls to you. There's a whole bunch of people who fall in the "doughnut hole" - i.e. too poor to afford premiums, too 'rich' to qualify for subsidies under the expansion of medicaid, because it's unfunded (SCOTUS struck that part down), so those people will pay a tax penalty FOR BEING POOR. (Personally, I think that's the stuff of a successful 'as applied' challenged to the Constitutionality of the mandate.)

I would feel sorry for them, but they voted for this shit. I say, raise taxes, re-couple the desire to spend with the reality that it must be paid for. Teach dipshit America a lesson.

[aprescoup]

"And Barack Obama also promised the most explicitly left-wing agenda in presidential history?more government, more taxes, more dependency, more bailouts, more regulations?and he won easily."

The left doesn't think so at all! In fact, the left thinks that the Obama's agenda is post-neoliberal centrism: corrupt corporatism, with rhetorical sops thrown to their base.

[Jake W]

I think you might call the rallies of totalitarians in the past and present "campaign style"