WASHINGTON — President Obama on Wednesday will make clear that he opposes any compromise that would extend the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy beyond this year, officials said, adding a populist twist to an election-season economic package that is otherwise designed to entice support from big businesses and their Republican allies.
Hey, it's only your money. You have enough anyway.
It is not clear that Mr. Obama can prevail given his own diminished popularity, the tepid economic recovery and the divisions within his party. But by proposing to extend the rates for the 98 percent of households with income below $250,000 for couples and $200,000 for individuals — and insisting that federal income tax rates in 2011 go back to their pre-2001 levels for income above those cutoffs — he intends to cast the issue as a choice between supporting the middle class or giving breaks to the wealthy.
I'm sure he does. That's the only playbook the fella has, really. Never mind this:
Martin Feldstein, who was economic adviser to President Ronald Reagan, said all the Bush tax cuts should be extended for two years because even letting those for the wealthy lapse would be “a blow to a very fragile economy.”
To the chagrin of the White House, Mr. Obama’s recently departed budget director, Peter R. Orszag, took the same stance on Tuesday in a column in The New York
Times.
So if you were a successful individual and were hoping to keep more of your money to either (a) invest in a new business or (b) pile it up in a vault and roll in it like Scrooge McDuck, tough luck, pal.
One other thing -- Mark Dayton would also like a word with you.
2 comments:
There's one more important issue that needs to be resolved: What's he going to do with the estate tax? Soak the rich and the dead!
He'll tax teh pennies on yer eyes!
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