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 How Many Jobs Did Robin Hood Create - White House Press Briefing by Robert Gibbs 2/26/09 — Friday, February 27, 2009 —  Q On jobs, which is the big complaint up on Capitol Hill right now from Republicans, that this plan is a job killer, I mean, the $787 billion plan was all about jobs more than anything else, and now you've got a plan in place that -- how can you possibly tax people making over $250,000 something like $667 billion over the next 10 years and not have a downward effect on jobs? MR. GIBBS: Well, Chip, how did it work in 1994 and 1995 and 1996 and 1997? Q I guess their argument would be, imagine if they didn't have those -- those taxes, how much better it would have been? MR. GIBBS: Isn't it interesting that there's always some little slip? Again, you know -- again, I don't do this by happenstance. There isn't a member of Congress, if they were to file a single taxpayer form, that makes above $200,000 a year. Q Well, Congress. MR. GIBBS: Well –- Q There's a lot of millionaires up there. MR. GIBBS: Well, that's true. But it's on their income. I mean, I think it's interesting, as people listen to those complaining about some aspects of the budget, I think it's just interesting to note -- I think the President was pretty clear on Tuesday -- we're talking about people that earn in excess of a quarter of a million dollars a year. Q And a huge percentage of those people are small business owners. MR. GIBBS: Some of them are, sure. Some of them are big business owners. Some of them are home-run hitters in major league baseball. Some of them run kickoffs back for a living. Some of them are the President of the United States. Q But a lot of them create jobs. MR. GIBBS: Some of them -- certainly, some of them, that's what their job is. But I would reject this overall premise that when we're asking for tax fairness from the American people, that we're -- that this is going to kill jobs. I guess if I follow the logic of the Republicans on Capitol Hill, how do you explain last month's unemployment figures? Current tax rates, 550,000 jobs -- what happened? Q This is a unique moment. (Laughter.) MR. GIBBS: Apparently, it always is. The President believes that he's put forth a budget and a Reinvestment and Recovery Plan that will save and create 3.5 million jobs, get our economy back on track, make the necessary and needed investments for sustained long-term growth in things like health care, education and energy, and do so in a way that's most fair for the American people. And again, I go back to my first thing -- the President ran specifically on the promises that are contained in what he believes is a blueprint and a vision for our future. And that's what the American people -- that's the result they rendered in November. Economy | Obama Administration | Press Briefing | Robert Gibbs | Taxes | Unemployment | White House Press Corps Labels: Economy, Obama Administration, Press Briefing, Robert Gibbs, Taxes, Unemployment, White House Press Corps >> Full Story
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 3:31:00 PM
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