As House Republicans return to Washington to a vote on extending the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts for another year, Obama adviser Robert Gibbs insisted that the president would not support giving rich people another tax break. “Let’s make some progress on our spending by doing away with tax cuts for people who quite frankly don’t need them – tax cuts that haven’t worked,” Gibbs said during an appearance on CNN’s State of the Union. Obama is “100% committed” to that position, he insisted.
I think it is way past time to let these tax cuts for the wealthy expire. They have done nothing to help the economy one little bit, in fact just the opposite.
If giving tax cuts to the wealthy created jobs, like the Republicans keep claiming, then we should have more jobs than we can find Americans to work them. However the simple truth is that the Bush tax cuts are NOT working, have NEVER worked, and will NOT work in the future.
Here you can see Robert Gibbs making this promise for yourself from this morning's State of the Union on
I so support our President in this matter. The Republicans pushing this matter to create jobs has been proven wrong, wrong, wrong!
ReplyDeleteHowever, think he is going to have a horrid time w/Congress in going along w/him!!
Thanks for fighting for us, Mr. President!
OBAMA/BIDEN 2012
It really is about time.
ReplyDeleteThey can't pass it if he won't sign it. And they don't have the Senate votes to override.
ReplyDeleteIt's irritating me a lot to hear both GOP and Dem pundits yammer endlessly about the "poor jobs report" and "the economy", and for one side at least "the President has done nothing" (while their side stifled every bill designed to "do something").
ReplyDeleteHe ended the war in Iraq, didn't he? What about those 50,000 soldiers who finally came home by the end of 2011? I wonder how many of them were National Guard part-timers who had jobs as cops, firefighters, and teachers. You know, the public sector jobs eliminated by the oh-so-smart thrifty GOP?
I hope between now and the November election Obama does a few other things to improve the situation for veterans and unemployed cops, firefighters, teachers, national park rangers, security guards, guides, docents, professors -- I hope he has a few more tricks up his sleeve for doing an end run around the GOP-led House.
Our media is NOT giving President Obama fair treatment as far as I'm concerned. They'd much rather not cover the improvement in jobs since President Obama's election and stick to the 'negative' reporting. It literally makes me sick to my stomach!
DeleteI suspect the 'people' know better. President Obama is still in many, many polls showing ahead of Romney and he certainly is well liked by the majority of the population.
The people will vote in November and I'm expecting a landslide in spite of the money being spent by Romney to put out those untruthful ads.
I can hardly wait for this election process to be completed. I think our system of elections could be done in a much better way.
And, I sincerely hope people are assisting the voters throughout the nation to obtain their proper ID before November. It's amazing how the Republican party is clogging the process of voting (through their Legislatures) throughout the nation.
OBAMA/BIDEN 2012
Just like Reagan's "trickle down economics," yeah, those tax cuts really worked now didn't they?
ReplyDeleteTake it to 'em, Mr. President.
CIP
Reagan's "trickle down economics" was the biggest whopper he foisted on the American public. Thirty-two years of this promise that wealth will trickle down from the uber wealthy to regular folks like you and me has led our nation to near bankrupcy and out of control unemployment. President Obama is working against nearly impossible obstructionism in Congress and the right wing media. The ONLY thing that has trickled down is DEBT!
DeleteNot to mention Dubya's wars. Why anyone would even consider voting Romney in is beyond me.
DeleteOh, but those tax cuts DID trickle down really well!
DeleteThey trickled down into the 1%'s pockets, into bank accounts in the Cayman Islands and Switzerland, into new pools, yachts and fancy cars (and the garage elevators to manage them, of course!), into private islands, multi-million dollar homes and luxury vacations...
Oh, and there most certainly WERE jobs created with all those lovely tax cuts. Just think about the DOZENS of gardeners, hairstylists, maids, butlers, personal assistants, manicurists, pet groomers, pool cleaners, chauffeurs and other people who are now employed because the 1% hasn't had to pay all those pesky taxes!
Yay!
ReplyDeleteI know this is a different issue, but it really annoys me that Mitt Romney pays 13% in taxes.
13%!
I am retired and on a limited budget, AND I pay more in taxes than this multi multi milionaire. Willard makes money by throwing working people into abject poverty.
DeleteAnd it really annoys me that the Republicans are criticizing the Obama campaign for bringing up that huge elephant in the room (Mitt Romney's tax returns).
DeleteBeaglemom
About Damned Time! I voted for President Obama, and while I support him wholeheartedly, I must admit that I have at times been disappointed by his appearing to negotiate away key bill components. Even as I say that, though, I acknowledge that I am responding to what I see from where I sit, and I have a far from comprehensive view.
ReplyDeletethis sounded a bit waffle-y to me. Gibbs was right to rephrase Fox wording, but it isn't a crisp enough message.
ReplyDeleteI do hope President Obama has a more sensible and mature group in the House & Senate during his second term. Those nutjobs that Sarah Palin foisted on us in 2010 aren't worth squat. Turnips would have been better representatives.
ReplyDeleteThe point of Robert Gibbs putting this out there today was to get the conversation started. President Obama should be salivating over the possibility of making Mitt Romney defend his unpopular position of lowering taxes for the wealthy.
ReplyDeleteNumerous polls have shown that support for raising taxes on the wealthy cuts across party lines. As much as Republicans don’t want to talk about it, the Mitt Romney tax plan is radical upward redistribution of wealth. If Republicans gain full control of the federal government they intend to lower taxing on the wealthy while increasing them on the middle class and poor.
The Bush tax cuts are going to be a major issue of the General Election campaign. Even though 74% of Americans support killing the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, there are seven Democratic Senators who are actually siding with Republicans on extending the tax cuts for those who need them least.
Obama has had great political success campaigning against the Bush tax cuts, and the comments by Robert Gibbs suggest that the president is getting ready to make the rich paying their fair share a central point of his reelection campaign. It will be interesting to see how the Republican nominee, who is one of those wealthy people who don’t pay their fair share, explains why he and his ilk don’t have to do their part.
The political dynamics have changed. Obama has tamed the toothless Republican tiger, and if he wins reelection there will be nothing stopping him from killing the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy.
http://www.politicususa.com/obama-drops-hammer-vows-kill-bush-tax-cuts-rich.html
Do all these millions that superpacs are spending to defeat our president count as "trickle down"?
ReplyDeleteDue to the Bush tax cuts the deficit “blew up.” The debt increased from $3.5 trillion to nearly $6 trillion and gross federal debt going from $5.6 trillion to nearly $10 trillion. Today, Republicans seem to be more interested in their reelection campaigns, and reducing their campaign debts, than reducing the national debt. Seeking to appeal to the wealthy Americans who make the largest campaign donations, Republicans insisted last year to extend the Bush tax cuts for the richest two percent of Americans. Now, both the House Republican budget and the House Republican “jobs plan” released last week include further reductions in the top tax rate from 35 percent to 25 percent. In fact, the “jobs plan” document calls for tax cuts to “Increase American competitiveness to spur investment and create more American jobs.” “Just because we proposed it in the past doesn’t mean it was not a good idea,” said Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) of the House Republican plan. “You could read [the GOP jobs plan] without knowing the past decade ever happened.”
ReplyDeleteTHE PROBLEM WITH ROMNEY
Mitt Romney has taken two bold positions, both of which will assuredly make our national debt even worse. First, he proposes that the Bush tax cuts become permanent...
http://malialitman.wordpress.com/2012/07/08/republicans-seek-to-reduce-their-campaign-debts-rather-than-the-national-debt/
I said back in the '80s when Reagan introduced supply-side economics, "How can that work? How does that make any sense?
ReplyDelete"People can't afford to purchase what's on the shelf - so the solution is to put more stuff on the shelf?"
(His own vice-president, George HW, called it "voodoo economics".)
It didn't work then, it doesn't work now, and it can never work. Just look at the facts:
fewer and fewer people have "disposable income" so the answer is to shift the tax burden from the people that own the factories to the people that work in the factories?
Cut everybody's taxes until we must do without firemen, policemen, teachers, roads, bridges, sewers?
How does that make any sense?