Yahoo News is running a Reuters story under this headline: "Obama singles out main tax targets". From reading the headline you would think that the president has identified the tax changes that he wants to make. Of course, this is not true. Here is the excerpt from his Saturday radio address that the article is discussing:
"Now, it would be nice if we could keep every tax break, but we can’t afford them. Because if we choose to keep those tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires, or for hedge fund managers and corporate jet owners, or for oil and gas companies pulling in huge profits without our help – then we’ll have to make even deeper cuts somewhere else."
I know that some pundits have discussed that the change for corporate jets is to change the depreciation period back to 7 years from 5 years. The period was 7 years when Obama took office, but in the stimulus bill the Democrats changed this to 5 years in order to promote job growth in the aircraft industry. But is that all that Obama is talking about? It is a change that will bring in less than 3 billion dollars in ten years. When the goal is cuts totaling 4 trillion dollars, this is not even a rounding error.
Tax benefits for oil and gas companies have also not been set forth in detail. Shouldn't the president at least ell us in detail what he is talking about? Don't the American people have a right to know this information? Many of the supposed "subsidies" are nothing more than the normal deductions available to any American business. Is that what Obama wants to do away with? He just never says.
And when it comes to those "millionaires and billionaires" that the Obamacrats always talk about, just who are they? Do they include single folks who make $200,000 per year? How about couples who make $250,000 per year. If that is the case, then nearly a majority of the people who work for Obama at the White House are "millionaires and billionaires". Indeed, there are cities like New York where there is a large group of foks who earn that much but who have such high expenses that they are firmly in the middle class. These are not super wealthy people. Then there are people sho own small businesses that are taxed as subchapter S corporations or as LLC's. These folks pay their taxes as if the money were personal income. Almost all of the small businesses in this country that hire numberous people would fall into the Obama category of millionaires and billionaires as a result. In other words, raising taxes on these folks will mean less money for investment and less money for hiring. Let me say it in English, it will be yet another move by Obama that will hurt economic growth.
Taxation of hedge fund managers is an area where once again, Obama does not say what he means. My guess is that many in the GOP would agree to modifications of certain tax provisions regarding hedge funds. Nevertheless, Obama would have to have a proposal were there to be any chance that the proposal could pass.
Simply put, what I am saying is that if Obama is is serious, he is either stupid or lazy. He has to realize that many people in Congress will not vote for something that is shown to them at the last minute after some back room deal. He owes both Congress and the American people more information about what he is proposing. If he does not realize this, he is truly stupid. On the other hand, if it is just too much work to put forward a full proposal in the way that every other modern president has done, then Obama is lazy. The truth is that I do not think that Obama is either stupid or lazy. I think he is not serious about the taxes. Obama wants there to be a disaster in connection with the debt ceiling that he can then try to blame on the Republicans. He is more interested in getting re-elected than in doing what is right. He is truly a disaster.
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