2007: Obama Would Shift Tax Burden to Wealthy

[Bluebear]

WASHINGTON — Taking aim at the nation's rising income disparity, Senator Obama of Illinois is proposing to raise taxes on corporations and top-earning investors to pay for a middle-class tax cut of more than $80 billion.

In a policy speech here yesterday, the Democratic presidential hopeful laid out a tax plan that he said would ease the burden for as many as 150 million Americans, particularly seniors and homeowners. He said he would recoup the estimated $80 billion to $85 billion in lost revenue by hiking tax rates on capital gains and dividends, the profits of hedge fund managers, and by eliminating corporate tax breaks for oil and gas companies. The proposal is aimed at adding "fairness" to a tax code that he characterized as increasingly and disproportionately benefiting the wealthiest Americans. "For decades, we've seen successful strategies to ride anti-tax sentiment in this country toward tax cuts that favor wealth, not work," Mr. Obama said in a 20-minute address organized by the Tax Policy Center. "And for decades, we've seen the gaps in wealth in this country grow wider, while the costs to working people are greater."...

Other aspects of Mr. Obama's tax plan include a proposal to eliminate all income taxes for senior citizens who make less than $50,000, as well as a mortgage tax credit for homeowners that would save the average recipient an estimated $500 a year.

http://www.nysun.com/national/obama-would-shift-tax-burden-to-wealthy/62908/

Great ideas all!

[yourout]

1. Not gonna happen I am affraid.

[rockymountaindem]

2. Well, he is letting the Bush tax cuts expire, so that is good

Those other things would also be nice, though.

[NYC_SKP]

3. These are still great ideas, all.

I'll be disappointed if, over the course of his administration, they aren't even attempted, if he doesn't address these things.

[WT Fuheck]

4. That was a different guy.

Move along.







He "changed," and I believe it.

[FiveGoodMen]

5. He was lying.

Either that or he is now acting under duress.

One of the two.

[medeak]

6. already pay 37%

if there was universal health care would not mind paying more

[Goldstein1984]

7. This Obama guy had some great ideas

We should have elected him.

[hfojvt]

8. not all great ideas

plus this part - "Mr. Obama's plan would create a refundable income tax credit of up to $500 a person and $1,000 a family to offset the payroll tax on the first $8,100 of their earnings."

was passed as part of the stimulus bill, except it was reduced to $400 per person by the Republicans from Maine.

The House version of HCR also includes a 5.4% tax on incomes over $1,000,000 combined with subsidies for lower income people.

Parts of the Bush tax cuts are also set to expire fairly soon. Unfortunately the huge recession made reversing them sooner politically impossible.