Usually in a recession, the last thing a government keen to create prosperity does, is raise taxes… But then again, who said that was Barack Obama’s objective?
Of course, this is being done to “protect” the middle-class. Having been a member of the middle-class for most of my life, I did not know I wanted protection from the wealthy.
Foolishly, I always assumed that I wanted the wealthy to become even wealthier, so they could spend more money, and thus create more demand for the services provided by the middle-class, but d’oh, what was I thinking?
Comrade Obama is right, let us punish the most successful examples of the free enterprise system so we can reward the non-so successful examples, this way, underachievers don’t get their feelings hurt…
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.
Overall, tax collections under the plan would rise from about 16 percent of the economy this year to 19 percent in 2013, while federal spending would drop from about 26 percent of the economy, another post-war high, to 22 percent.
Republicans, who are already painting Obama as a profligate spender, are laying plans to attack him on taxes as well. Even some non-partisan observers question the wisdom of announcing a plan to raise taxes in the midst of a recession. 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.”
