President Obama Draws Clear Line Between Tax Cuts For Middle Class And Wealthy

video

by Colby Hall | 3:28 pm, September 8th, 2010

» 44 comments

Welcome to election season! With Labor Day weekend in our collective rearview mirror, and a sure to be hotly contested midterm elections on the horizon, President Obama gave a classic political stump speech today in Parma, Ohio. At times rambling, at times inspired, the President seemed to draw a clear line in the sand between he and his GOP adversaries over tax cuts for the middle class, versus continuing tax cuts for the wealthy in an effort to spur a stagnant economy.

As Joe Weisenthal points out BusinessInsider, Obama makes is a fairly compelling case regarding the tax code, writing:

He says he’s willing to give the middle class (everyone making under $250K per year) if the GOP is willing to let the tax cuts expire for the rich (those above). He even says he’d be willing to extend the tax cuts starting this week.

Policywise this is fine, and we think it could be a good political message even — forcing the GOP to explain why they won’t support a widespread tax cut, if it means a tax hike for the rich.

As we’ve said before, the current administration appears to be staking a giant flag on the Middle class with regards to the economy. And while the President’s rhetoric is back in campaign form, most middle class voters aspire to be wealthy, so it’s not yet clear that this is a strategy that will pay off in big dividends come November. Either way, it appears that with the specific mentions of Minority Leader Boehner, Obama has come out of his corner swinging. (A transcript of his prepared statement follows the video below.) (H/T Joe Weisenthal)

I’ll give you one final example of the differences between us and the Republicans, and that’s on the issue of tax cuts. Under the tax plan passed by the last administration, taxes are scheduled to go up substantially next year. Now, I believe we ought to make the tax cuts for the middle class permanent. These families are the ones who saw their wages and incomes flatline over the last decade – and they deserve a break. And because they are more likely to spend on basic necessities, this will strengthen the economy as a whole.

But the Republican leader of the House doesn’t want to stop there. Make no mistake: he and his party believe we should also give a permanent tax cut to the wealthiest two percent of Americans. With all the other budgetary pressures we have – with all the Republicans’ talk about wanting to shrink the deficit – they would have us borrow $700 billion over the next ten years to give a tax cut of about $100,000 to folks who are already millionaires. These are among the only folks who saw their incomes rise when Republicans were in charge. And these are folks who are less likely to spend the money, which is why economists don’t think tax breaks for the wealthy would do much to boost the economy.

So let me be clear to Mr. Boehner and everyone else: we should not hold middle class tax cuts hostage any longer. We are ready, this week, to give tax cuts to every American making $250,000 or less. For any income over this amount, the tax rates would go back to what they were under President Clinton. This isn’t to punish folks who are better off – it’s because we can’t afford the $700 billion price tag. And for those who claim that this is bad for growth and bad for small businesses, let me remind you that with those tax rates in place, this country created 22 million jobs, raised incomes, and had the largest surplus in history.

barack obama, Economy, John Boehner, Middle Class, Midterm Elections, midterms, Tax Cuts

More Liberty

This BS is why we need a Fair Tax. Playing class warfare is truly disgusting.
ImJustThatDamnGood

Is this the Thrill Chris Matthews speak of? If so Mr. President could you give me another dose.
More Liberty

Even Obama’s former budget director, Peter Orszag says that the tax cuts should be extended to all Americans in order to spur growth, not just the middle-class.

I love how government cronies debate and argue about how much of our own money we should be allowed to keep. The government is the only organization that has the power to confiscate your money under threat of robbing you of your liberty. They can take your property, they can even take your life. if there is one entity that needs to be restrained it is the government.
Smeg

Hey dingleBarry, those tax cuts for the middle class don’t mean jack when the wealthy you want to tax the hell out of aren’t keeping and investing their capital here anymore and creating jobs because they don’t want to pay for your ever-expanding bloated bullshit federal government. Do you get that, President Fido? Is it getting thru to your kanine cranium yet, or are you just cocking your head sideways and staring in bewilderment like your dumb ass always does when you see a frisbee? Fool.
libra blue

Why no mention of this:

Today, Sept. 8, Obama, Parma, introduced Democratic Gov. Lee Fisher as the “soon-to-be junior senator from the great state of Illinois..”

BO was in Parma, Ohio and Fisher, like his opponent Portman are both from Ohio.
murf

Bad Barry ! Bad Dog !

http://yfrog.com/b9tlsaj
paulmdoro

I don’t think there are too many people in Washington these days who truly understand and care about the struggles and hardships of middle class and working class Americans. They spend all week surrounded by lobbyists and politicians in DC and the weekend in their comfortable home with family and friends. Who is actually working towards helping everyday Americans? Not making nice statements to the press, but actually working.
http://gordonbloyershow.com gordonbloyershow

Rejection Day is coming Nov. 2nd.
To the American voters………….
From California to the New York Islands this land is your land. This land is my land. It was made for you and me. NOT Obama.

The government doesn’t help me on my job so they shouln’t share my pay. Get rid of the income tax and enact the Fair Tax.
Not Your Typical New Yorker

“…the current administration appears to be staking a giant flag on the Middle class with regards to the economy”

A giant stake in the “heart” of the middle class with regards to the economy.

Fixed it for you colby, no charge.

And get off your knees fer cripes sakes!
paulmdoro

gordonbloyershow said:
Rejection Day is coming Nov. 2nd.
To the American voters………….
From California to the New York Islands this land is your land. This land is my land. It was made for you and me. NOT Obama.

The government doesn’t help me on my job so they shouln’t share my pay. Get rid of the income tax and enact the Fair Tax.

It’s as much Obama’s as it is yours Blower, political differences aside.
felixw

Have you seen that Castro has finally admitted that the Cuban economic model doesn’t work:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100908/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/cb_cuba_fidel_castro_5

My advice to Fidel is to call it “stimulus” and see if it works any better under a new name.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Stephen-Hogan/179500970 Stephen Hogan

gordonbloyershow said:
Rejection Day is coming Nov. 2nd.
To the American voters………….
From California to the New York Islands this land is your land. This land is my land. It was made for you and me. NOT Obama.

I see what you did there. You took a classic song about American unity and changed it to be exclusionary.

gordonbloyershow said:
The government doesn’t help me on my job so they shouln’t share my pay. Get rid of the income tax and enact the Fair Tax.

Well, it built the roads you drive on, so it helped you get to work. It pays for a police force and fire fighters, so you don’t have to worry about someone stealing your stuff while you’re at work. It pays for the free public schools that your children and their children attend. The government also provides employees with basic legal rights that protect them from abuse at the hands of their employer. In actuality, if not for the government and the infrastructure it provides through the use of tax dollars, your job might not even exist.
http://gordonbloyershow.com gordonbloyershow

Hogan, I know you are slow but getting rid of the income tax does not stop the government from doing any of the things you list. The Fair Tax provides more money than they will need. Notice I said NEED not WANTS.
More Liberty

Stephen Hogan said:
Well, it built the roads you drive on, so it helped you get to work. It pays for a police force and fire fighters, so you don’t have to worry about someone stealing your stuff while you’re at work. It pays for the free public schools that your children and their children attend. The government also provides employees with basic legal rights that protect them from abuse at the hands of their employer. In actuality, if not for the government and the infrastructure it provides through the use of tax dollars, your job might not even exist.

Most roads are not paid for by the US Government. My property taxes pay for the local public schools.
jk76

nobody ever questions why the middle class is 250k. Who the hell says 250k is middle….isn’t the median income like 50k? isn’t the median considered middle class? isn’t that what middle means? I consider 100k well-to-do.

What’s lower class if that’s the middle? What’s upper?

more bullshit from the 536th legislator of the USA. Do we only have 2 branches of Fed Govt?
http://www.facebook.com/people/Stephen-Hogan/179500970 Stephen Hogan

More Liberty said:
Most roads are not paid for by the US Government. My property taxes pay for the local public schools.

He said ‘government’. He did not specify federal or otherwise. Also, I was speaking of taxes, in general. Even if the taxes are not directly taken from your income, they come from it none-the-less.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Stephen-Hogan/179500970 Stephen Hogan

gordonbloyershow said:
Hogan, I know you are slow but getting rid of the income tax does not stop the government from doing any of the things you list. The Fair Tax provides more money than they will need. Notice I said NEED not WANTS.

I wouldn’t classify myself as ‘slow’. A little tortoise-esque, maybe, but not slow.

If you look back at my statement, I wasn’t specifically addressing income taxes. I was addressing this statement that you made :

gordonbloyershow said:
The government doesn’t help me on my job so they shouln’t share my pay.

So, I gave you instances of where the government does help you with your job.
dummy123

I hear that Obama-care is officially a TAX…and will NOT save the tax payers money.
More Liberty

jk76 said:
nobody ever questions why the middle class is 250k. Who the hell says 250k is middle….isn’t the median income like 50k? isn’t the median considered middle class? isn’t that what middle means? I consider 100k well-to-do.

If that’s the case, then most of the middle class don’t even pay taxes.
More Liberty

Stephen Hogan said:
He said ‘government’. He did not specify federal or otherwise. Also, I was speaking of taxes, in general. Even if the taxes are not directly taken from your income, they come from it none-the-less.

I don’t mind moderate taxes that pay for roads, schools and law enforcement. But i don’t like my taxes going to GM, the unions, the United Nations, foreign countries, the arts, etc.
Azarkhan

The difference between Democrats and Republicans is that Democrats are far left swine who hate America and Republicans are not.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Stephen-Hogan/179500970 Stephen Hogan

More Liberty said:
I don’t mind moderate taxes that pay for roads, schools and law enforcement. But i don’t like my taxes going to GM, the unions, the United Nations, foreign countries, the arts, etc.

I’d prefer GM over AIG, but that’s because I favor government support of the manufacturing base. I agree with everything else you said except the arts.
paulmdoro

Azarkhan said:
The difference between Democrats and Republicans is that Democrats are far left swine who hate America and Republicans are not.

Is a comment like this representative of the intellectual capacities of right-wingers? In other words, are they call intellectually challenged?
Hugo Daun

didntgordonbloyourmindthistime said:
The government doesn’t help me on my job…

As if you have a job, dummy.
JamesA1102

http://www.epi.org/page/-/img/20081022snapshot600.jpg
Haimerej

“He says he’s willing to give the middle class (everyone making under $250K per year) if the GOP is willing to let the tax cuts expire for the rich (those above). He even says he’d be willing to extend the tax cuts starting this week.”

That’s a far cry from promising no one making under $250k would have their taxes raised.
Azarkhan

paulmdoro said:
intellectual capacities

There is nothing “intellectual” about leftist swine. Democrats and their leftist allies are just dumb swine. Sorry you never got the memo.
Azarkhan

…Instead, Democrats embarked on the most sweeping expansion of government since the 1960s, imposing national health care, rewriting financial laws from top to bottom, attempting to re-regulate the telecom industry, and imposing vast new costs on energy, among many other proposals. Not to stop there, in January it plans to impose a huge new tax increase on “the wealthy,” which in practice means on the most profitable small businesses.

Central to Mr. Obama’s political strategy for passing these priorities has been trashing business and bankers as greedy profiteers. His Administration has denounced or held up as political or legal targets the Chrysler bond holders, Wall Street bonuses, Goldman Sachs, health-insurer profits, carbon energy investors, and anyone else who has dared to oppose any of its plans to “transform” U.S. society.

Only yesterday at a Labor Day event in Milwaukee, Mr. Obama was at it again, declaring that “anyone who thinks we can move this economy forward with a few doing well at the top, hoping it’ll trickle down to working folks running faster and faster just to keep up—they just haven’t studied our history. We didn’t become the most prosperous country in the world by rewarding greed and recklessness.”

Whatever else one can say about such rhetoric, it is not the way to restore business confidence or turn a fragile recovery into a durable expansion. It has only spread fear and even greater uncertainty….

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703444804575071281687927918.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop

Time to throw those filthy Democratic pigs out of office.
Haimerej

A campaign promise is now a bargaining chip.

HOPE AND CHANGE!!!
PureFreedom

You harm or make villains out of the rich you are hurting everyone…
I don’t think the liberals see much past there own noses.
The rich keeps this country afloat dum dums…

Obama is not thinking of the economy he is thinking of the less informed voters who don’t understand economics and will support Obama.
Permatiltx

Azarkhan said:
The difference between Democrats and Republicans is that Democrats are far left swine who hate America and Republicans are not.

Democrats DON’T HATE America. For the love of God, how long until this argument is put to rest. Dems love America just as much as Republicans. They show it differently. When are we going to learn that disagreement does not equal hatred for America. The question is what constitutes loving America? Social programs to help out the less fortunate certainly shows a love for America. Believing in its diversity certainly shows a love for America, doesn’t it? What is it that Dems (who are not all far left swine by the way, there are moderate and centrist Dems which are certainly not far left at all.) do in particular (I’m talking specifics) that show that they hate this country? What exactly?
Permatiltx

Stephen Hogan said:
I’d prefer GM over AIG, but that’s because I favor government support of the manufacturing base. I agree with everything else you said except the arts.

Didn’t we sell it back and make a nice profit off of GM, or did I read that wrong?
felixw

What a strange situation. Obama now is forced to admit that tax cuts spur the economy. But then he refuses to agree to tax cuts for the very people who do the hiring and investing. This must be the most incoherent economic agenda in American history.
Permatiltx

PureFreedom said:
You harm or make villains out of the rich you are hurting everyone…
I don’t think the liberals see much past there own noses.
The rich keeps this country afloat dum dums…

Obama is not thinking of the economy he is thinking of the less informed voters who don’t understand economics and will support Obama.

But if the rich are outsourcing and seeking money from foreign markets without actually adding anything (or stimulating) the American economy, then should they be getting tax breaks? I agree that tax breaks should come across the board, but I think tax cuts should only be implemented to those that keeps jobs and businesses here in this country. The more American employees the company has, the better the tax breaks. I mean I don’t know much about the economy as others, but it just seems like that’s a decent start to influence companies to keep the jobs here. Isn’t that basically what we want and need? I say repeal the Bush tax cuts and implement this tax policy.
StandUp

More Liberty said:
I love how government cronies debate and argue about how much of our own money we should be allowed to keep. The government is the only organization that has the power to confiscate your money under threat of robbing you of your liberty. They can take your property, they can even take your life. if there is one entity that needs to be restrained it is the government.

How is it possible for that comment to get any thumbs down much less 11 in 3 hours. Too may people have a f’d up idea about how gov’t should work. Very telling
StandUp

many
http://www.facebook.com/people/Stephen-Hogan/179500970 Stephen Hogan

Permatiltx said:
Didn’t we sell it back and make a nice profit off of GM, or did I read that wrong?

Nope, you didn’t read that wrong.
jiji00

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felixw

Permatiltx said:
Didn’t we sell it back and make a nice profit off of GM, or did I read that wrong?

You have that wrong. The government bailout was $50 billion to GM. In the proposed share sale, the government would only recoup $20 billion. Here are the details:

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/117221-report-taxpayers-may-take-a-hit-on-gm-stock-ipo

It’s actually Bush’s TARP bill that is generating profits for the taxpayers. Here are more specifics:

http://pushingrope.blogspot.com/2009/06/tarp-making-profit-true.html
DEFENDER-90

General Motors Aughustm sales fell7% from July,and even sharper 25% percent from Augustof 2009,and now the Chevrolet Volt a piece of crap . tax money well spent.
felixw

Permatiltx said:
But if the rich are outsourcing and seeking money from foreign markets

Hey, Perma, consumers are the cause of much of the job shift overseas. How many foreign cars do you see on the road? How many consumers walk out of Wal-Mart with merchandise made in China because they don’t want to pay more for American-made goods? I

I always buy American-made big ticket items whenever possible and always have, but I find that the same bleeding hearts who complain about jobs going overseas are driving around in European sedans. Do you know that everyone on Obama’s task force to fix the American car industry was driving a foreign car? Do you have any proposals for punishing them? If consumers made a commitment to purchasing American-made products, the companies would keep the jobs here. And if the consumers don’t care, why is that the fault of the businesses who are serving them?
DEFENDER-90

Our government will fix the American auto industry and fix it good,just like the UK government did.
Nachi

And all the little ill-born, ill-bred Repugs imagine they are “identifying” with the extreme weathy by – voting Repug! Pitiful. But been that way for decades now. And these rancid masses never stop to think that they will NEVER be any better or more – than they are today! Yup.
DrFunke

I still want someone to explain how we will pay for these tax cuts if we kept them for the wealthy

Just someone…please

And give me facts, not some generic line that Fox News told you