Obama: "I Will Raise Taxes"

townhall.com ^ | May 8, 2008 | Amanda Carpenter

[Free ThinkerNY]

By Amanda Carpenter

Thursday, May 8, 2008

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama flatly promised to raise taxes in a television interview Thursday afternoon.

“I will raise CEO taxes,” Obama told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on “The Situation Room.”

“If you’re a CEO in this country you’ll probably pay more taxes,” Obama said. Obama speculated his CEO tax rates “won’t be prohibitively high, you’ll pay roughly what you did in the 90’s when they were doing fine.”

Obama also said he would eliminate the Bush tax cuts and install what he called a “middle class tax cut.”

Blitzer asked Obama to define “middle class.”

Obama replied, “You know, I think the definitions are always a little bit rough” and said “if you’re making $100,000 a year or less, then you’re pretty solidly middle class…On the other hand, if you’re making more than $100,000 and certainly if you’re making more than $200,000 or $250,000, you’re doing pretty well.”

The CNN interview was the first one Obama has held since Tuesday’s primaries in Indiana and North Carolina. In it, the Illinois senator also discussed his judicial philosophy. Obama, who has delivered constitutional lectures at University of Chicago Law School, said he thought Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was “a very sensible judge.” He also hinted he would place special emphasis on civil rights protections when appointing Supreme Court judges if elected President.

“We’ve got to make sure civil liberties are protected,” Obama said. “Because oftentimes there are pressures placed on politicians to want to set civil liberties aside, especially at a time when we’ve had terrorist attacks. Making sure we maintain our separation of powers so that we don’t have a president who is takes over more and more power, I think those are all criteria by which I’d judge whether or not this is a good appointee.”

[CottonBall]

if you’re making more than $100,000 and certainly if you’re making more than $200,000 or $250,000, you’re doing pretty well.”

So I'm gonna punish you for it!

Exactly. Tax rates are so high on a second income (when the first one is a reasonably good one) that I'm chosing not to work. Why do so when when over 50% of my paycheck get redistributed elsewhere? It's not hardly worth it. (As a side note, very very few of the people I explain this to seem to understand the simple math. It's either denial or our education system at work.)

[CottonBall]

Then again, the idiots on here that refuse to, are just ASKING for this nightmare. Insisting on it.

That's it - call people names to get them to do what you want. It works for the libs, apparently, so it should work for those with a liberal candidate (McAmnesty).

[CottonBall]

only pray that he will realize that the NY Times and his liberal fellow legislators are not his friends. Maybe he will govern from the right just to spite them.

I see the idea posted here repeatedly that we have to vote for McCain, yet much hope that he does not govern as he as for the past 20 years - or even more i timely, for the last 10 years when he's been more of a liberal than a moderate.

Seems a delusional plan to me.

[CottonBall]

My son makes $100k. The average house in Nassau County is $500k plus with taxes of $7k/yr. Obama wants even more of his money?

But of course. Those on welfare there can't afford as much as your son, who is working hard every day. Libs won't be happy until everyone has equal 'income', regardless of their efforts. And they're clueless that the economy will come to a screeching halt long before that point.

[G8 Diplomat]

Didn’t Michael Dukakis say the same thing during a debate with Reagan? That’s not how you win an election!

[windsorknot]

The Devil wants your soul, and B.O. wants your money.

[socialismisinsidious]

that I'm chosing not to work.

Me too. I have a degree in PT that I probably will never use again b/c it makes no sense tax wise....I have no desire to work so the federal government can take it and do a piss poor job of redistributing it.

Here's a question: where are the "feminists"? Women staying out of the work force b/c of social engineering via the tax code...seems like something they should be complaining about. What? Oh yeah they're liberals aka hypocrites whose entire agenda is nothing but abortion (which of course hurts more woman than it helps).

[CottonBall]

Me too. I have a degree in PT that I probably will never use again b/c it makes no sense tax wise....I have no desire to work so the federal government can take it and do a piss poor job of redistributing it.

Well, it's so nice to run into another '2nd-incomer' who has figured it out and refuses to be a puppet!

Here's a question: where are the "feminists"? Women staying out of the work force b/c of social engineering via the tax code...seems like something they should be complaining about.

That's an excellent point. When I used to have my engineering job, I would figure that the men with wives that stayed home worked for about 40% more than I worked for - doing the exact same work. Their tax breaks got them more money, while I subsidized it by paying outrageously high rates. I'd say that my rights were certainly being violated!

Now, I do consider going back to work now and again out of boredom. I got my teaching credential, 'just in case'. But I found out I despise teaching! It's not at all about the kids - or learning - anymore. I'd go back to engineering, which I loved, IF I wasn't punished so severely for it. And now, Obama would raise taxes on us even more, as if they're not high enough already! The heck with 'em.

[CottonBall]

Didn’t Michael Dukakis say the same thing during a debate with Reagan? That’s not how you win an election!

It was a really stupid thing to say, especially to give hard numbers.

[353FMG]

“What worries me is that he speaks to the crowd,saying what they want to hear.”

He is not much different from many other politicians.

“And the GOP trots out some over the hill loser..”

No Republican wants the job of POTUS bad enough as McCrazy does. But I do feel your pain like it hurts me. We have a large number of voters this time that are looking forward to seeing the lights dim in this country. And once they start to dim, they will never shine brighter again. Consult any history book.

Ever since the creation of the UN, there has been a movement, at home and abroad, to cut the US down to size so that it will no longer be seen as the superior country that it is.

Ask yourself why the US should encourage the immigration of illiterate people with a stone-age mentality who have nothing to contribute to our country. Does it appear normal to you that we should fight Islam overseas and at the same time allow the immigration of Muslims, many of whom with the intention of destroying the host?

These are all parts of the overall scheme to destroy the view of the US as perceived by the Founding Fathers and to change it into a nation undistinguishable from any other.

[littlehouse36]

“It is all part of the national death wish.”

Painful truth ping.

[McCoMo]

Obama: “I Will Raise Taxes”

Was there ever any doubt in anyone’s mind?

[wtc911]

With a dem congress (both houses) and Obama in the WH we could see a Perfect Storm that would take decades to fix, assuming that Americans find the will to get tough again.

[ripley]

“we’ve got to make sure civil liberties are protected.”

(except the liberty to be secure from income confiscation when the government sees the need for social justice.)

[ripley]

“they seem to think they are g-d.”

the problem is that they KNOW they are g-d.

[Mr. K]

Good... that worked so well for Dukakis!

[Mr. K]

I wish McCain had the brains to pick Thomas Sowell for VP (or the brilliant Walter William- to explain economics to the masses)

[Mr. K]

I make $102,500 per year and I could be out of my house and on welfare (if I had no dignity) in less than 6 months if I lost my job.

I have NO IDEA how I am going to pay for college for my 3 little girls, but the $1,500 that is taken out of my paycheck every 2 weeks seems like a lot of money to me already.

(yes thats $36,000 per year to the government- I could pay off my house in 3 years with that, instead I have a 30 year mortgage)

[Grampa Dave]

“A hundred grand salary isn’t enough to buy a house in most of Silicon Valley.”

Even double that salary with no large down payment is why so many of the Bay Area counties have gone from bedroom communities to commute to cities. Most younger people can’t afford to buy a home in these expensive bay area cities/counties.

[Jacquerie]

Good post. I would only add that the left set out to utterly destroy a great jurist, Robert Bork years before the Clinton appointees.

Just as the rats don't acknowledge that we are at war with Islam, the pubbies don't accept that the rats declared war on them decades ago.