Posted on 04/21/2010 9:40:47 PM PDT by Steelfish
Obama Suggests Value-Added Tax May Be An Option
By CHARLES BABINGTON Apr 21
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama suggested Wednesday that a new value-added tax on Americans is still on the table, seeming to show more openness to the idea than his aides have expressed in recent days. Before deciding what revenue options are best for dealing with the deficit and the economy, Obama said in an interview with CNBC, "I want to get a better picture of what our options are."
After Obama adviser Paul Volcker recently raised the prospect of a value-added tax, or VAT, the Senate voted 85-13 last week for a nonbinding "sense of the Senate" resolution that calls the such a tax "a massive tax increase that will cripple families on fixed income and only further push back America's economic recovery." For days, White House spokesmen have said the president has not proposed and is not considering a VAT.
"I think I directly answered this the other day by saying that it wasn't something that the president had under consideration," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters shortly before Obama spoke with CNBC. After the interview, White House deputy communications director Jen Psaki said nothing has changed and the White House is "not considering" a VAT.
Many European countries impose a VAT, which taxes the value that is added at each stage of production of certain commodities. It could apply, for instance, to raw products delivered to a mill, the mill's production work and so on up the line to the retailer. In the CNBC interview, Obama said he was waiting for recommendations from a bipartisan fiscal advisory commission on ways to tackle the deficit and other problems.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
BOHICA, ladies and gents.
Oh crap! Does this mean we have to thank him again like that dork in California did?
vat is not good...how about fair tax and no irs?
Make no mistake - this is a tax on the poor!
Well, if the Euros do it it must be the cat’s meow!!!!!!!
We all know that tax increases are coming. Obama has appointed this phony commission to make recommendations on how to reduce the deficit and national debt. The idea is to shift the hard decisions to some outside board, similar to base closings, so the Congress can avoid the responsibility and consequences for making hard decisions. The commission will recommend tax hikes and the MSM will aid the WH by supporting them explaining how much of a financial crisis this country is in.
If the Dems push this through before November, there will be a 400 Republicans - 35 Dems Congress in January of 2011. Another Bill for the Pubbies to repeal.
Yeah, just don’t call the Pres-ent a Socialist. Because he’s not one. /sarc
I am sure Obama will redistribute wealth to give VAT subsidies to the poor minorities. Poor whites are screwed.
They need to cut spending...cut, cut, cut. Here are some ideal..., stop all foreign aide, pull all the troops overseas home..tell these countries you are on your own..we pay for those bases overseas. We can’t afford it anymore.
If you go to msn.com their news headline is “Middle-class taxes not in Obama deficit plan”. When you click on this link it goes to a story about Obama considering the VAT. Is MSNBC so confident that most of their readers are only going to read the propaganda headline and not the story that clearly is a contradiction?
Yes. He already altered his no increase in taxes claims, to “no increase in income taxes” to cover for other taxes.
He now claims he only said there’d be no increase in income taxes for those making less than 200/250K.
He’s been that blatant already, why quit now?
Joe the Plumber - spreadin’ the wealth around is a good thing, ya know?
By 2060, the entitlement programs will consume over 70% of the federal budget. By 2030, one in five Americans will be 65 or older, twice what it is today. In 1950 we had 16 workers for every retiree; today it is 3.3, and by 2030 it will be two. We cannot sustain SS and Medicare as currently structured. They represent an unfunded liability of $60 trillion. We have 60 million people on Medicaid and Obamacare will add another 16 million.
You are right. We can't afford many things any more. The entitlement programs need to be cut, cut, cut. We have some very painful decisions ahead as a nation. We have lived beyond our means for decades. We are bankrupt.
The health care reform law broke this promise. Bigtime.
The unfunded liabilities with SS and Medicare is over 100 trillion.
The $60 trillion is over a 75 year period. And yes it is over $100 trillion if you go beyond that period.
Not when the poor get massive tax credits for taxes they never paid.
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