"So the fondest Washington hopes for a grand debt-limit deal have broken down over taxes. House Speaker John Boehner said late Saturday that he couldn't move ahead with a $4 trillion deal because President Obama was insisting on a $1 trillion tax increase, and the White House quickly denounced House Republicans for scuttling debt reduction and preventing "the very wealthiest and special interests from paying their fair share."
"How dare Republicans not agree to break their campaign promises and raise taxes when the jobless rate is 9.2% and President Obama's economic recovery is in jeopardy?
(...)
"Keep in mind that Mr. Obama has already signed the largest tax increase since 1993. While everyone focuses on the Bush tax rates that expire after 2012, other tax increases are already set to hit the economy thanks to the 2010 Affordable Care Act.
(...)
"There are numerous other new taxes in the bill, all adding up to some $438 billion in new revenue over 10 years. But even that is understated because by 2019 the annual revenue increase is nearly $90 billion, or $900 billion in the 10 years after that. Yet Mr. Obama wants to add another $1 trillion in new taxes on top of this.
(...)
"Mr. Obama is also touting spending cuts he's willing to make in entitlements in return for bigger tax increases, yet the spending increases built into ObamaCare aren't even up for discussion in the debt-limit talks. The Affordable Care Act adds more than 30 million more Americans onto Medicaid's rolls, when that program is already growing by 6.5% this year. So Mr. Obama is willing to cut current entitlements on grounds that they are unaffordable, but he's taken what may be the most expensive entitlement off the table.
"We think this was the President's spend-and-tax plan from the very first. Run up spending and debt in the name of stimulus and health-care reform, then count on Wall Street bond holders and the political establishment to browbeat Republicans into paying for it all. He apparently didn't figure on the rise of the tea party, or 1.9% GDP growth and 9.2% unemployment two years after the recession ended."
Wall Street Journal
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Quote of the Day 07.12.11
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2 comments:
What grinds my gears is people quibble over the little things and ignore the two wars Bush started.
It's cost more than $1,000,000,000,000 already (aprox since 2001 - Iraq 786,000,000,000 and Afgh. 433,000,000,000)
I can't vouch for your numbers, but I can say that Bush was backed by the Dems in Congress when he took it to them. Bush isn't around, so maybe you should take it up with them. If you can get them to stop the wars, that'd be fine with me. but they don't seem to want to, now that they are Obama's wars, not Bush's wars. Obama has had, what? two and a half years to stop the wars. They are definitely his property. Complaining about Bush doesn't get much purchase any more. But yeah, sure, he should win it or get out, and certainly give us a meaningful withdrawal date, not a phony date like in Iraq. I'm for putting 250k troops on the southern border to stop ATF/DOJ weapon shipments into Mexico.
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