Obama opposes permanent tax break for wealthy: aide

[ProSense]

Source: Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama will not go along with a permanent extension of tax cuts for the wealthiest, presidential adviser David Axelrod said on Sunday, without closing the door to a temporary continuation.

"There's no bend on the permanent extension of tax cuts" for the wealthiest, a Republican proposal that Obama has long opposed, Axelrod said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

He did not respond directly when asked whether Obama would agree to tax legislation that couples a temporary extension for top earners with making permanent the current breaks for the middle-class.

"We are looking forward to sitting down with (congressional) leaders," Axelrod said. Obama has invited a bipartisan group of congressional leaders to dinner at the White House this week.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20101114/pl_nm/us_usa_economy_taxes_1

[de novo]

1. Temporary=Permanent.

[BrklynLiberal]

3. BINGO!!!!!!!!!!! Why the constant equivocating with the use of the word "permanent"???

[Faygo Kid]

10. +1. How stupid do they think we are? Of course it will be permanent.

We are screwed.

[still_one]

35. Obviously, they are the ones who are pretty stupid, because a lot of people did NOT turn out and

vote in 2010 because of this kind of bullshit

Take a stand for once President Obama, win, lose, or draw

[Enrique]

4. which is why Jim DeMint is ok with temporary

Get a load of his graciousness:

Asked during an interview on "Fox News Sunday" if he could vote for a two- or three-year extension of all of the tax cuts, instead of making the breaks permanent, DeMint said: "If that's all we could get out of the president, then he is the president, so we'll work with him on that."

[de novo]

6. And therein you have the awesomeness of 'compromise'.

:puke:

[jonnyblitz]

9. just keep doing back- to-back "temporaries". SLICK. nt

[ProudDad]

30. 'Cause DeMint knows that if Obama keeps flipping and flopping

And pissing on his base...

the pukes will be in charge in '13 and can make them permanent...

[Joanne98]

2. Notice the mission word creep. He opposes PERMANENT...

[handmade34]

5. if they continue to be temporary

at this point, there is a good change that they will become permanent later

[DJ13]

7. "opposes any further tax break for the wealthy" is what needs to be said

Its weasel words otherwise.

[asdjrocky]

8. Boy he sure is loving his new word.

Permanent. It leaves so much wiggle room for your typical weasel politician.

More for the rich, less for the poor, the New Democrats.

[tularetom]

11. There's no such thing as temporary

But it's OK - I saw this morning that Mr Axlerod says the administration will concentrate on easing the pain of the middle class.

I'm perfectly willing to watch what they do and ignore what they say. But the first friggin thing they actually DID after the election was to allow the chairs of their deficit commission to release their godawful report which more or less shoved the entire deficit problem up the ass of the middle class.

And don't tell me the commission chairmen released that report without permission of the white house. If the white house was that pissed about what it says, they would fire Simpson and Erskine, dissolve the commission, form a new group and start over. They didn't do that. Instead we heard more platitudes from the pres about hasty judgments and working together. The administration buys this pile of crap. They buy it big time.

"Those who make peaceful change impossible, make violent revolution inevitable" -John F. Kennedy

[grahamhgreen]

12. Returning to the taxes of the Greatest Generation would eliminate the debt and deficit in 6 years

#2 - YOU CAN NOT HAVE A TAX CUT WHEN YOU ARE RUNNING A DEFICIT! All you are doing is borrowing money, at interest, that we will all have to pay back later.

#3 - WE CAN ELIMINATE THE DEBT AND DEFICIT BY RETURNING TO THE GREATEST GENERATIONS TAX RATE ON THE ULTRA RICH!

Eliminating the Bush tax cut (4% increase) will raise 700 billion in revenues in 10 years. (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/11/us/polit ... ... )

Which means a 40% increase on the top tax rate to a rate similar to the pre-Reagan rate of 79.6% would yield 7 trillion in 10 years.

A 58% increase to 94% would yield over 10 trillion dollars over the next 10 years.

So our deficit of 1.3 trillion would be gone in a little over a year and our DEBT would be gone in under 10 years (as we pay it down).

Simple! Done and done - and we haven't added the critical taxes to investment income yet!

2010 Y1: 14T - 3T (2T normal revenues plus additional 1T from tax on ultra-rich) = 11T debt
2011 Y2: 11T(debt) + 1T(deficit) - 3T = 9T debt
2012 Y3: 9T(debt) + 600B(deficit) - 3T = 6.6T debt
2013 Y4: 6.6T(debt) + 700T(deficit) - 3T = 4.3T debt
2014 Y4: 4.3T(debt) + 800T(deficit) - 3T = 2.1T debt
2015 Y5: 2.1T(debt) + 800T(deficit) - 3T = .1T debt
2016 Y6: .1T(debt) + 900T(deficit) - 3T = +2 Trillion SURPLUS!!!

[TheeHazelnut]

13. we have the Senate and Presidency but have to play by the GOP's rules apparently

what is the point of having a Democratic president?

[Iowa]

17. We don't have a "Democratic" president in the traditional sense of the word...

We have a Republican president masquerading as a Democrat.

[obxhead]

26. LOL. We had the House, Senate, and Pres and played by GOP

rules. I certainly didn't expect it to 'change' with the new GOP controlled House being sworn in.

[andym]

14. Temporary extension gives the Republicans the power to frame issue in the future

Because later they can use their control of the House to propose a permanent extension of the tax-cut with for the wealthy linked with the that of the middle class. There will be no way to separate them at that time.
Trouble is that they can block a pure middle-class extension right now and blame the Dems.

[NoodleyAppendage]

15. Obama WILL NOT be getting my vote in 2012. Even if it's Palin as the opponent.

I refuse to be DUPED yet again for a candidate with a strong progressive message (2008 election), who then turns out to be a limp spined weasel DINO.

ENOUGH!

J

[truthisfreedom]

16. WTF? Obama's done a great deal of good for this country. I'd vote for him again in a heartbeat.

He's wonderful.

[Iowa]

18. +1

[tpsbmam]

37. I'll be sure to drop you a thank you note if we end up with President Palin. God,

I can't even write that without puking. :puke: And by thank you note I really mean a fuck you note.

I am sooooo not an Obama fan (despite my enthusiastic and hopeful 2008 contributions/volunteering/vote) and have repeatedly criticized him, but I'll be damned if I won't vote for him in 2012 over PALIN, for god's sake! If he's primary-ed by a good progressive, I'm not sure what I'll do.....probably work my ass off for the progressive. But assuming he wins the nomination, you can be damn sure I'll vote for him.

[GOPNotForMe]

19. Start the countdown to capitulation. nt

[TheeHazelnut]

20. he opposes a "permanent" Don't Ask Don't Tell policy as well

a "temporary" one is just fine, though, apparently

[spinbaby]

21. Does he not know how to negotiate?

You don't start with, "We want the tax breaks for rich people to expire."

The way to do it is, "We want the tax breaks for rich people to expire. We want to raise their taxes until they pay back the money they got in tax breaks over the last ten years with interest. We want to add another surcharge on top of that just for the hell of it and maybe we'll let them keep their first born." That's the way to start a negotiation.

[ProudDad]

31. Yep. And then you ONLY give in on the "first born" part...

:rofl:

[hollowdweller]

22. TEMPORARY till the GOP wins control in 2 years

Would me MUCH harder for them to pass a new cut for the rich if they aren't just extending it.

Obama should veto both tax cuts and then introduce a new middle class ones.

[Doctor_J]

23. Hard to see the sky with all of the trials balloons floating around

he's getting to be a Clinton-level tap dancer

[ProSense]

24. The latest

Obama Says He’s Committed to Middle-Class Tax Cut Extension

[ProudDad]

32. He should let them all expire...

Anyone making $60,000 per year who can't afford $25 per month should analyze their budget a little better...

[politicalmajority]

25. Obama Is Dumb.

He does not know that temporary equals permanent.

[No Elephants]

42. Why assume he and his advisors do not know that?

[PuppyBismark]

27. Any approval of rich tax breaks is a deal breaker

I spent a lot of my time and my money to support this president's election. If he doesn't "grow a pair" on taxes and use his veto, I will do what I can to nominate someone different. This stinks!!

:grr: :grr: :grr: :grr:

[ezmerelda39]

28. We always hear

positive statements before the final compromise, in this case the wealthiest will keep their tax breaks and we will lose SS and Medicare. That's what I call CHEX...a Complete Capitulated Compromise for Corrupt Corporations. The deficit will be impacted by a complete wash. Financial 'Reform' was a CHEX. Health care 'Reform" was a CHEX. As Richard Pryor would say, "I wanna know who's in charge here?"

[ProudDad]

29. Like this promise?

"On health care, Obama’s willingness to forgo the public option is sure to anger his party’s liberal base. But some administration officials welcome a showdown with liberal lawmakers if they argue they would rather have no health care law than an incremental one. The confrontation would allow Obama to show he is willing to stare down his own party to get things done. "

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0909/26672.html

He'd rather get a "win" by siding with the republicans than operating on the basis of principle and what's right and wrong...

As he's supposed to do according to his bosses...

[FreeStateDemocrat]

33. Weasel word is "permanent" but any extension will then make it "Obama's tax cuts for the wealthy."

Just like the Afghan war that he now wants to extend until 2014 is now "Obama's war." Just another whore politician that is on the re-election campaign trail and will do whatever it takes to stay in office. Wall Street on speed-dial for contributions (payoffs) to finance his re-election campaign.

[elleng]

34. He can't get business done in public, can't negotiate on meet the press,

and we are foolish to pay much attention to this stuff, imo.

[No Elephants]

43. Except we've been hearing "permanent" for a while now. And pls see Reply 41.

[donco6]

36. We already heard this - he wants a temporary=permanent tax cut.

Old news.

[daleo]

38. Temporary extension

1 enact temporary extension
2 wait a few years
3 goto 1

[jeanpalmer]

39. "temporary" "permanent" = meaningless distinction

used by people who want to give the rich a tax cut but don't have the balls to come out and say it.

[SoCalDemGrrl]

40. Hey Obama are your listening? NO temporary OR Permanent Tax cuts for

the top tier. If you waiver, then we will waiver in 2012.

Nuff said......

[No Elephants]

41. Dems have had almost 4 years to make middle class cuts permanent, almost 2 of those years

under Obama. (I don't think Bush would have vetoed that. In any event, Obama's been President since January, 2009.)

AND, both Houses of Congress continue to be overwhelmingly Democratic, as they are as we post, (so why are we all posting as though nothing could possibly have been done once midterm votes were counted)?

Besides, Obama and his peeps did not have to say a single thing about what he would settle for until the bill got to his desk. He could work behind the scenes with Dems in Congress and let them do what they can, instead of hastening to make concessions in public in advance.

Meanwhile, Schumer's been on TV droning on about a "compromise" consisting of raising the limit to those making income of a million a year (not net worth, mind you, but INCOME).

Tax cuts AND Social Security and Medicare benefits for the obscenely rich.