Obama Hints At A VAT Tax
After his multiple, fulsome promises not to raise federal taxes on Americans making less than $250,000 this would seem like political suicide. But with the Democrats having already crammed the health care bill down our throats, and Obama looking more and more like a one-term President (though, admitted, we’re still a long way out from 2012) maybe he’s figuring…what the hell.
Let’s go for it.
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.
According to Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad’s new budget, even just pairing the budget deficit from $1.4 trillion this year down to $545 billion in 2015 would require in come tax hikes of around $3,700/year each for 30,000,000 Americans. Clearly, the debt and deficit (with health care likely to go to the back burner) are going to be huge issues for the rest of Obama’s time in office. So he has to do something to address them.
And that something, because he’s a big government liberal, can’t be cutting spending. So instead he’s going to flirt with new and exciting ways to take more of our money.
But, really, “flirting” is all I think he’ll do. An overwhelming majority of the Democrat-dominated Senate is already on record as voting against the VAT as an economy killer. And the Obama administration has, as the article notes and despite Obama’s flirting, been pretty adamant that the VAT isn’t on the table.
Regardless, this does illustrate the left’s mindset when it comes to reducing deficits. And that mindset is all about taking more from you.
Tags: george w bush, joe arpaio, liberals, price gouging, Uncategorized
