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 Tax Fairness He Can Believe In - White House Press Briefing by Robert Gibbs 2/23/09 — Monday, February 23, 2009 —  MR. GIBBS: Jake.Q Without getting ahead of the President, he has made it clear that -- (laughter) -- MR. GIBBS: I'm going to bring him and put him right here, so that I can stand at least two steps behind him. (Laughter.) He, when we do that, won't be taking any questions. So just FYI. Q But he'll just be ahead of you. MR. GIBBS: Slightly. (Laughter.) Q Without doing that, he's made it very clear that at the very least, letting the Bush tax cuts expire is in the game plan. I'm just wondering, there have been other ideas floated out there in terms of tax cuts, whether -- or tax increases, rather, on people who make more than a quarter million dollars a year. If it doesn't make sense to raise taxes this year because of the recession, might it also be problematic for the economy to recover if taxes are raised next year? Would that principle not still apply? MR. GIBBS: Well, I guess it -- some of that depends maybe where we are on the economy. Let's understand where we are in terms of the fiscal -- I'm sorry, in terms of the economic recovery plan. You have one of, if not the largest, tax cut ever enacted in a two-year period, as the President stated this weekend, going into people's paychecks beginning April 1. The President campaigned on a promise to ensure that money would get into people's pockets that had seen their wages decline over the past few years. And he made good on that promise through the recovery plan, and believes that will have a stimulative effect on the economy. The President has also talked about in some form or another letting the tax cuts for the top 1 or so percent either be repealed or expire, because the President believes that after many years of having a tax code that favored the few over the many, that a combination of both the recovery plan and what may or may not be in the budget for future years begins to right the tables a bit on who this tax code is written for and the people that deserve to be part of the benefit now. Q Because -- if I could just follow up -- to be more precise in my question, isn't it true that the people who we're talking about raising their taxes, people who make more than a quarter million dollars a year, whether it's going from 35 to 39.6, or the hedge fund managers going from 15 to 35 or 39.6, or capital gains taxes going from 15 to 20 -- that these are the people who will invest to create the new jobs, and at a time of recession, taking their money and giving it to the government or giving it to other people actually could impede the cause of job growth? MR. GIBBS: Well, I think the President talked about this extensively on the campaign -- Q But that was before the recession became as big as we now see it. MR. GIBBS: I think I would posit that the recession was big at the end of the campaign. Again, I think there's an element first of tax fairness. And I think that -- I think this President understands that there have been many benefits for the few at the expense of a few benefits for the many; that through the recovery plan and in the coming years, the President believes it's important that those that have not seen much in the way of an increase in their paycheck have more money in their pockets. That may require those that shared in great benefits, huge benefits in the tax cuts from 2001 and 2003 -- again, importantly, for those making more than $250,000 a year, I think the top 1 percent of all wage earners in this country -- is fairness that the President believes is important. Economy | President Obama | Press Briefing | Robert Gibbs | Taxes | White House Press Corps Labels: Economy, President Obama, Press Briefing, Robert Gibbs, Taxes, White House Press Corps >> Full Story
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 9:46:00 PM
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