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What is a "Loophole"?
TownHall ^ | 10/2/2008 | Bob Novak

Posted on 10/01/2008 10:27:23 PM PDT by Danae

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- How would Barack Obama pay for the $800 billion that John McCain claimed in the first presidential debate Sept. 26 in Oxford, Miss., that his Democratic opponent would spend if he were elected president? Obama replied, by "closing tax loopholes."

Obama was no more specific in the debate, and tax experts doubt that structural changes without increasing taxes can raise anything close to that amount of money.

My office asked the Obama campaign for the details, and it responded with a 19-page single-spaced paper on the candidate's "tax plans."

In fact, there was precious little about tax policy in the paper, which amounted to a repeat of Democratic campaign oratory that can be heard in 30-second speeches before both houses of Congress daily on C-SPAN.

Obama has made clear that he would try to roll back President Bush's tax cuts, but that does not come under the definition of a "loophole." A loophole consists of a conniving tax attorney discovering a weakness in the Internal Revenue Code or such a weakness intentionally legislated by Congress under the instigation of crafty lobbyists. The only specific tax legislation contained in Obama's paper would raise the capital gains rate for most shareholders, restore taxation on dividend income to pre-Bush standards and restore the full estate tax.

These were not loopholes but presidential proposals enacted by Congress. The Obama paper paints a picture of lobbyists running wild on Capitol Hill but neglects to assess the impact on the economy during the current financial crisis of taking a serious strike against the stockholding public.

Obama's dividends and capital gains proposals appear to be a major attempt at redistribution of income rather than a serious attempt to pay for the spending that he has proposed.


TOPICS: News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: mccain; noval; obama
Right ON Novak! He may have a brain tumor, but its not affecting his thinking at all!
1 posted on 10/01/2008 10:27:23 PM PDT by Danae
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To: Danae

A loophole is anything the government hssn’t already gotten it’s hands on.


2 posted on 10/01/2008 10:45:58 PM PDT by Hugin (Mecca delenda est!)
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To: Danae
Typical Demo-rat rhetoric: Promise everything, give nothing and keep it all for your self.
3 posted on 10/01/2008 10:48:36 PM PDT by truemiester ((If the U.S. should fail, a veil of darkness will come over the Earth for a thousand years))
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To: Danae

Weren’t tax loopholes largely eliminated along with Reagan’s tax cuts in the 80s?

Leave it to the economically illiterate Obama to think that “loopholes” are still a big problem.


4 posted on 10/01/2008 11:03:44 PM PDT by Bullish ( Reality is the best cure for delusion.)
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To: Bullish

Every time a Lobbist gets his or her way, a loop hole is created. Seriously anytime you come across a law that tells you not to do something, but specifies no punishment and in fact never states that there is a punishment at all, yea loophole.

Thats how the Naked Short Sellers were getting away with Raping companies. A loophole just like that.


5 posted on 10/01/2008 11:12:53 PM PDT by Danae (Read my Lipstick: I AM Sarah Palin)
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To: Danae

Did I mention I was referring to “TAX” loopholes?


6 posted on 10/01/2008 11:15:12 PM PDT by Bullish ( Reality is the best cure for delusion.)
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To: Bullish
Obummer probably meant.... "No deductions for you!"
7 posted on 10/02/2008 1:12:03 AM PDT by Califreak (Three Bank Monte-confidence artistry of the elite)
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To: Bullish

I still believe in no taxation without representation.

In the US, we recognize corporations as legal parties who are subject to corporation income tax.

Accordingly, even though we do not allow corporations to vote for their representatives in government, I find no reason they might not defend and express their interests to those who represent the people who comprise those corporations.

Accordingly, the implication of lobbyists as ‘crafty’, fails to acknowledge a much greater loophole which would form in a representative government, if corporations were not allowed to lobby elected representatives.


8 posted on 10/02/2008 4:05:44 AM PDT by Cvengr (Adversity in life and death is inevitable. Thru faith in Christ, stress is optional.)
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