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 Handing Out Tea - White House Press Briefing by Robert Gibbs 4/15/09 — Friday, April 17, 2009 —  Q Robert, on taxes, the President can say with justification that he hasn’t raised taxes on anyone making less than $200,000 --MR. GIBBS: No, the President can say with much justification that he’s cut taxes for the largest number of -- Q Not only not raised them, he’s cut them, okay. Okay. MR. GIBBS: Let’s not -- I don’t know if you are handing out tea, but I just want to -- (laughter.) Q My question is that -- is that pledge to not raise taxes on the 95 percent of working families, is that a kind of "read my lips" pledge going forwards? Because the reason I ask this is that the tea party people say it’s no so much they feel that he’s taxing them now, but they’re worried in the future to pay for all these programs he’s simply going to have to raise taxes on the vast majority of people. And even the tax hikes that he sent up on the wealthy to Congress -- to pay for health care, for instance -- had been rejected. So the question is, you know, where else are you going to get the money. I'm wondering if this is a kind of "read my lips" pledge going forward that he will never raise taxes to pay for any program on the 95 percent of working families. MR. GIBBS: Well, whether this is a "read my lips" or however -- it’s a statement and a promise that the President has made. Q But not just up until this point, but going forward -- MR. GIBBS: He didn’t say, I make this promise at or until April 15th of 2009. I think you can assure people across the street that that's not the case. Q Okay, but you're saying that he will not -- MR. GIBBS: I would restate what he said in the campaign, and that is he won’t raise taxes on people that make above $250,000 a year. Q Below. MR. GIBBS: I’m sorry, below. See? (Laughter.) You've even confused me. (Laughter.) Now I'm all flummoxed. Again, I can’t speak to what you said in terms of this notion that people are more concerned about -- they’re not actually concerned about what’s happened now, but they’re concerned about what could happen in the future. Again, I would encourage you to go out there and ask them about the tax cuts that they’ve already gotten. Q Well, I'm not disputing that. I'm talking about -- and I'm not talking about just the tea party people. But when people see Congress saying, okay, we don’t want to eliminate the tax deductions for the wealthy to pay for health care, the question is where else is this money going to come from. MR. GIBBS: I don’t know how much polling NPR has done; I've certainly seen it from other organizations that denote even this week healthy support among the American people for those that make above $250,000 a year to pay more in taxes. Q But that's not my question. I'm talking about is he confident that he can stick to his pledge -- MR. GIBBS: He is. Q -- and not raise taxes. Okay. MR. GIBBS: He is. President Obama | Press Briefing | Robert Gibbs | Taxes | White House Press Corps Labels: President Obama, Press Briefing, Robert Gibbs, Taxes, White House Press Corps
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 2:29 PM
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