Posted on 03/02/2015 5:16:42 PM PST by amnestynone
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest confirmed Monday that President Obama is "very interested" in the idea of raising taxes through unitlateral executive action.
"The president certainly has not indicated any reticence in using his executive authority to try and advance an agenda that benefits middle class Americans," Earnest said in response to a question about Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) calling on Obama to raise more than $100 billion in taxes through IRS executive action.
"Now I don't want to leave you with the impression that there is some imminent announcement, there is not, at least that I know of," Earnest continued. "But the president has asked his team to examine the array of executive authorities that are available to him to try to make progress on his goals. So I am not in a position to talk in any detail at this point, but the president is very interested in this avenue generally," Earnest finished.
Sanders sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Jack Lew Friday identifying a number of executive actions he believes the IRS could take, without any input from Congress, that would close loopholes currently used by corporations. In the past, IRS lawyers have been hesitant to use executive actions to raise significant amounts of revenue, but that same calculation has change in other federal agencies since Obama became president.
Obama's preferred option would be for Congress to pass a corporate tax hike that would fund liberal infrastructure projects like mass transit. But if Congress fails to do as Obama wishes, just as Congress has failed to pass the immigration reforms that Obama prefers, Obama could take actions unilaterally instead. This past November, for example, Obama gave work permits, Social Security Numbers, and drivers licenses to approximately 4 million illegal immigrants.
I guess after Florida, Dems might have figured turn-about-fair-play.
I mean, not me, of course - I will always obey the IRS.
And I love Barak Obama....
Those that bash the rich, CEOs and corporations are liberals and socialists. Apparently Obama supporters have infiltrated free republic.
The GOPe might get a lot of money from the Chamber, but the real problem is the stupid proles that vote for big government republicans. One of the hallmarks of big government is high corporate taxes with breaks doled out by politicians. The reason our corporate rates are the highest in the world is that the politicians benefit from the power of doling out tax breaks.
The solution is to lower corporate taxes, take away the power of the politician to dole out tax breaks, and then maybe get our chance to vote in politicians that are not bought and paid for by corporations.
More likely they are just clueless. The TV tells them to hate the rich so they hate the rich. The sad fact is that the income gap is due to complex factors that most people don't comprehend. A great example is the big banks giving huge sums to Obama, less to McCain and Romney. They also send a lot of money to other politicians. In exchange the Federal Reserve gets to funnel vast amounts of money to them with their various securities purchases and other methods of "boosting the economy".
The basic problem is that these elite, although with mostly good intentions, believe that the economy can be boosted through infusing wealth into the stock market and having Keynesian spending on all sorts of crap. What that does instead is make the already wealthy much wealthier. OTOH, the high corporate tax rate (highest in the world) bites into the income of those who are productive and ambitious but not yet wealthy as well as destroy jobs that could employ the rest of us.
Good points except I would differ on why the stock market has risen. It is quite simple actually. The fed has artificially forced rates so low there is nowhere else for money to go. One can invest in stocks and get dividends almost as high as treasury notes plus there is potential for growth.
So that makes it ok to go back to a soak the rich tax structure? You do not apparently understand the nature of income and taxes. The people who do well at creating a small business and jobs have income. The people who scheme and scam have no income just royalties, dividends, etc. And no, the answer is no taxing dividends as income.
Some truth but too simple. The Fed buys securities from banks who create them by churning mortgages, etc. That is a direct cash spigot from the Fed to the banks (one of many).
I don’t believe in soaking the rich. But I do believe in soaking the people who destroying our border smearing us in the media and spending all of the money. They should pay through the nose and if they happen to be rich so be it. As far as I am concerned it is about making the people pay who are wrecking our country.
Ok, how are you going to structure taxes to do that? I could see if you advocated higher fines for hiring illegals, etc. But all you are proposing is higher taxes.
“He’s going to have a full blown revolution on his hands.”
Only in your dreams, sadly. Over 100 years ago, the shooting would have already started, but not now. The middle class is apathetic. People won’t revolt now until they are suddenly starving, and the Democrats know it. Boiling frog and all that....
The only problem there isn’t enough folks to stand up. Oppression will keep going on and on... The Repub are all for it as well.
What is there to stand up with? Write our representatives? Vote for the right people? Call? Letter to the editor? There is absolutely no one in power that is on our side, or there are not enough anyway.
Our congress of cowards will not help ever.
Obama’s hero might be FDR. Obama will be around for a long time.
The United States has a President who acts like a monarch and an aristocracy with the number of legislators who keep getting voted back to the House and Senate. Many of the big corporations have employees that go to work for the government. Some government employees go to work for big corporations. All of the “elites” are connected to each other. The only thing that is missing are the titles like Count or Baron.
Its the Bolshevik revolution without firing a shot. They won’t stop till we are disarmed and fully enslaved.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.