WaPo: Obama to raise taxes on wealthy, "wind down" war

[ccharles000]

by SusanG
Sat Feb 21, 2009 at 01:40:04 PM PST
The Washington Post has a sneak preview of the budget President Obama will unveil Tuesday, and on a first quick read, it looks mighty progressive.

Maintaining the estate tax and letting the Bush tax cuts expire seems to be the revenue-raising heart of the budget.

Obama to Unveil an Ambitious Budget Plan

By Lori Montgomery and Ceci Connolly
Washington Post Staff Writers

President Obama is putting the finishing touches on an ambitious first budget that seeks to cut the federal deficit in half over the next four years, primarily by raising taxes on business and the wealthy and by slashing spending on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, administration officials said.

In addition to tackling a deficit swollen by the $787 billion stimulus package and other efforts to ease the nation's economic crisis, the budget blueprint will press aggressively for progress on the domestic agenda Obama outlined during the presidential campaign. This would include key changes to environmental policies and a major expansion of health coverage that Obama hopes to enact later this year.....

...Obama proposes to cut spending and raise taxes. The savings would come primarily from "winding down the war" in Iraq, a senior administration official said. The budget assumes that the nation will continue to spend money on "overseas military contingency operations" throughout Obama's presidency, the official said, but that number is significantly lower than the nearly $190 billion the nation budgeted for Iraq and Afghanistan last year.

Obama also seeks to increase tax collections, primarily by making good on his promise to eliminate the temporary tax cuts enacted in 2001 and 2003 for wealthy taxpayers, whom Obama defined during the campaign as those earning more than $250,000 a year. Those tax breaks would be permitted to expire on schedule for the 2011 tax year, when the top tax rate would rise from 35 percent to more than 39 percent.

Obama also proposes to maintain the tax on estates worth more than $3.5 million, instead of letting it expire next year. And he proposes "a fairly aggressive effort on tax enforcement" that would target tax havens and corporate loopholes, among other provisions, the official said.


http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/2/21/16286/4333/488/700235

[Captain Hilts]

1. That will get the press screaming as they're in the higher income groups. People in the US...

STILL think Bill Clinton raised their taxes because he raised them on upper income groups - the press.

Good luck Mr. President!

[tsuki]

19. He has two things Clinton did not, an angry populace and the internets, both

of them.

I read somewhere (cannot link, as I forget where) that the percentage of people getting news from the internet is now over 50%.

[Captain Hilts]

21. A lot of that is reading the NYT online, but, yes. Cokie Roberts' crowd...

won't get away with the same shit now as they did under Bubba.

[vaberella]

2. Amen to this news. n/t

[ccharles000]

6. yup

[graywarrior]

3. Wish it could happen now

[EraOfResponsibility]

4. If I'm not mistaken, the budget can't be filibustered, right?

I knew Obama would wait until the budget to really show his progressive side.

[Numba6]

11. It can, thru amendments ad infinitum or the old fashioned kind of filibuster

At some point the Republicans could even shut down the gov't if they hold together, just like they did under Clinton...

and that did them so much good then

:rofl:

[EraOfResponsibility]

12. oooh yeah, I remember the furlough of '96

damn :(

[billybob537]

5. And just like No Child left behind

You don't have to fund what you don't like!!

[Phx_Dem]

7. He should make all the rich assholes who've been evading taxes by

hiding their money in USB pay back taxes. Fuckers.

[Abq_Sarah]

8. Raising taxes on business?

I'd be interested in seeing the details on that.

[Numba6]

9. As I pointed out, Obama's MASSIVE stimulus bill will be followed by more

@

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x8215623

& more will only be a good thing


Obama to Unveil an Ambitious Budget Plan
February 21, 2009
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/21/AR2009022100911_pf.html

the budget blueprint will press aggressively for progress on the domestic agenda Obama outlined during the presidential campaign. This would include key changes to environmental policies and a major expansion of health coverage that Obama hopes to enact later this year.

...

To get there, Obama proposes to cut spending and raise taxes. The savings would come primarily from "winding down the war" in Iraq, a senior administration official said.
....

Obama also proposes to maintain the tax on estates worth more than $3.5 million, instead of letting it expire next year. And he proposes "a fairly aggressive effort on tax enforcement" that would target tax havens and corporate loopholes, among other provisions, the official said.

...

Republicans, who are already painting Obama as a profligate spender, are laying plans to attack him on taxes as well.

But senior White House adviser David Axelrod said in an interview that the tax proposals reflect the ideas that won the election last fall.

"This is consistent with what the president talked about throughout the campaign," and "restores some balance to the tax code in a way that protects the middle class," Axelrod said. "Most Americans will come out very well here."

The budget also puts in place the building blocks of what administration officials say will be a broad restructuring of the U.S. health system, an effort aimed at covering some of the 46 million Americans who lack insurance while controlling costs and improving quality. Many lawmakers said they had expected a health care overhaul to be pushed off while Obama deals with the economic crisis, but administration officials stressed they intend to forge ahead with comprehensive reform.

"The budget will kick off or facilitate a focus on getting health care done this year," the senior official said, adding that the White House is planning a summit on health care. The event has been delayed by former senator Tom Daschle's decision to withdraw from consideration as health secretary because of tax problems, a move that left Obama without key member of his health team.
...

Administration officials also are debating whether to permit people as young as 55 to purchase coverage through Medicare. That age group is particularly vulnerable in today's weakened economy, as many have lost jobs or seen insurance premiums rise rapidly. The cost would depend on whether recipients were offered a discount or required to pay the full price of coverage.
MORE

[pot luck]

15. That's great news.

I'm glad to see that he's keeping his campaign promises.

[AyanRand Is Dead]

10. good!

[Parker CA]

13. Are simple majority votes in the House and Senate all that are needed to pass this budget? n/t.

[and-justice-for-all]

14. GOOD! nt

[Kdillard]

16. This is going to be good. I hope Obama is prepared for the

crap that will be coming his way. He needs to knock it so out of the park on Tuesday that the Republicans won't know what hit them.

[mvd]

17. K&R

This should ease the minds of some who doubted how much foreign policy will change. I'd like to see less of a ground effort in Afghanistan and more specific targeting of Al Qaeda.

[dkf]

18. Eliminating the temporary tax cuts doesn't have to pass anything.

All we have to do is sit on our butts and it will happen by itself.

[otohara]

20. GoBama

Hope is alive.

[high density]

22. Now we get to see whether the Repukes really care about the deficit

I'm guessing a lot of no votes again.

[DailyGrind51]

23. Go back to the "Eisenhower" tax rates, that will take care of those Wall Street bonuses!