The vice president told NBC's "Meet The Press" in an interview broadcast Sunday that he and Obama still believe tax cuts for the wealthiest are "morally troubling" and that they would fight to avoid renewing the cuts when they expire in 2012.
"The one target for us in two years is no longer extending the upper income tax credit for millionaires and billionaires," Biden said.
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A more robust economy, Biden said, would allow the president to make a stronger case for eliminating the cuts for the wealthy.
"We will be able to make the case much more clearly that spending $700 billion over 10 years to extend tax cuts for people whose income averages well over a million dollars does not make sense," Biden said.
Well, that's a relief. They'll fight next time.
It's not like the President promised to repeal the tax cuts when he was elected. Oh, wait a minute, he did:
WASHINGTON, May 13 — If elected president, Senator Barack Obama said Sunday, he would seek to repeal President Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and use the money to pay for health care, but he did not suggest he would raise other taxes to pay for expanded services.
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Mr. Obama, an Illinois Democrat seeking his party’s presidential nomination, said in a television interview broadcast Sunday that he supported "rolling back the Bush tax cuts on the top 1 percent of people who don’t need it.
NY Times, May 14, 2007
Obama also said he would repeal the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans.
"At a time when Americans are working harder than ever, we are taxing income from work at nearly twice the level that we're taxing gains for investors," Obama said. "We've lost the balance between work and wealth."
cnn.com, September 18, 2007
Then he was elected:
During his presidential campaign, Barack Obama promised to repeal President George W. Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy ahead of their scheduled expiration in 2011. It was part of how Obama would pay for an overall net tax cut aimed at low- and middle-income taxpayers, and an effort to bring what he called "fairness" to the tax system.
No one is talking tax hikes now.
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Asked Monday when those hikes might go into effect, Obama said, "Whether that's done through repeal, or whether that's done because the Bush tax cuts are not renewed, is something that my economic team will be providing me a recommendation on."
Obama May Not Repeal Bush Tax Cuts, Nov. 24, 2008
But he'll definitely make sure they expire, right?
President Obama's Office of Management and Budget unveiled a broad outline of its plans for the 2010 budget on Feb. 26, 2009, highlighting investments in health, energy and education.
To pay for some of those items, Obama proposed allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire as scheduled on people who make more than $200,000 and couples who make more than $250,000. For those income levels, his plan increases rates on the two highest income tax brackets, raising the 33 percent bracket to 36 percent and the 35 percent bracket to 39.6 percent. Under Obama's plan, those tax cuts expire, as scheduled, in 2011.
When asked whether those tax increases would hinder economic growth during a recession, spokesman Robert Gibbs reiterated that taxes for the wealthy would not increase until 2011, almost two years from this writing.
President Obama "doesn't believe that the changes that are being made would hinder economic growth," Gibbs added. "I would point out that many of these rates for families that make above $250,000 a year revert to the rates that we saw throughout the '90s, when this economy enjoyed fairly robust economic growth."
Obama budget forecasts tax increases for higher incomes, Feb. 26, 2009
President Barack Obama will allow tax breaks given to wealthier Americans under his predecessor, George W. Bush, to expire as scheduled rather than eliminate them sooner, an administration official said on Saturday.
Reuters, Feb 21, 2009
And in 2010:
Obama wants tax breaks proposed by President George W. Bush to expire this year. His budget would eliminate tax breaks on those making more than $250,000 a year, a move almost certain to be opposed by Republicans and perhaps some Democrats as the economy crawls out of the recession.
"We extend middle-class tax cuts in this budget," Obama said Monday at the White House, but "we will not continue costly tax cuts for oil companies, investment fund managers, and those making over $250,000 a year. We just can't afford it."
Obama proposes end to Bush-era tax breaks for wealthy, Feb. 1, 2010
And, of course, we all know that President Obama just rammed through the Obama-McConnell bill extending tax cuts for the rich, a "compromise" bill.
And now we go back to the beginning:
"The one target for us in two years is no longer extending the upper income tax credit for millionaires and billionaires," Biden said.
There is always a reason to cut taxes for the wealthy. The sun shines; the sun sets. It's day time; it's night time. A Democrat is in power, a Republican is in power. We have a surplus; we have a recession. The economy is good; the economy is bad; the economy is recoverting slowly; or the economy is recovering fast.
The rationales change, but the policies remain the same.
So my questions are to you:
Do you believe that Obama and Biden will "fight"?
Do you believe that Obama and Biden will "fight" and end the tax cuts for the rich?
Or do you believe that change doesn't really happen; the people in formal power change, but the bias toward wealthy investors stays the same?
Would you buy a used car from this adminstration?