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 Looking Beyond Our Self-Interest - White House Press Briefing by Robert Gibbs 3/25/09 — Thursday, March 26, 2009 —  MR. GIBBS: Sheryl.Q Robert, the President talked last night about urging Americans to look beyond their self-interest. Tonight he's going to two political fundraisers, one of them $30,000 a couple. Is that an example of looking beyond our self-interest? And are you worried about the tone that that sets in a time when Americans are struggling? MR. GIBBS: No, I think you -- I think when you -- though I hope he's not placid and unsmiling -- I think you'll see in the remarks he makes tonight and I think you can be rest assured in the remarks he's made yesterday that he fully understands the hardships and the troubles that the American people are undergoing in their lives each day. But I think it's also safe to assume that the President wants to see a strong party system in this country. And I would mention that in that, the -- we haven't seen politics by either party stop in this period, though I think the President fully understands the situation the American people face. Q Will he urge some of those donors to contribute to charity or use his remarks in some other way to -- MR. GIBBS: Well, I -- look, I -- Q note the broader situation as -- MR. GIBBS: Well, I think the -- I think the situation will -- I think the remarks will denote the situation. I think the remarks will denote the actions that he's taking to change the situation in this country. I think the President has been focused every day on how to make the situation for average Americans better. He always encourages people to get involved, to knock on doors, to give to charity, and to do whatever they can to help out their neighbors. Charity | DNC | Political Campaigns | President Obama | Press Briefing | Robert Gibbs | White House Press Corps Labels: Charity, DNC, Political Campaigns, President Obama, Press Briefing, Robert Gibbs, White House Press Corps >> Full Story
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 3:33:00 PM  Charity Begins With Higher Taxes - Press Conference by the President 3/24/09 — Wednesday, March 25, 2009 —  THE PRESIDENT: Mike Allen, Politico. Hi, Mike.Q Thank you, Mr. President. Are you reconsidering your plan to cut the interest rate deduction for mortgages and for charities? And do you regret having proposed that in the first place? THE PRESIDENT: No, I think it's -- I think it's the right thing to do, where we've got to make some difficult choices. Here's what we did with respect to tax policy. What we said was, that over the last decade, the average worker, the average family have seen their wages and incomes flat. Even at times where supposedly we were in the middle of an economic boom, as a practical matter, their incomes didn't go up. And so what we said, let's give them a tax cut, let's give them some relief, some help -- 95 percent of American families. Now, for the top 5 percent, they're the ones who typically saw huge gains in their income. I fall in that category. And what we've said is for those folks, let's not renew the Bush tax cuts, so let's go back to the rates that existed back in -- during the Clinton era when wealthy people were still wealthy and doing just fine; and let's look at the level in which people can itemize their deductions. And what we've said is let's go back to the rate that existed under Ronald Reagan. People are still going to be able to make charitable contributions. It just means, if you give $100 and you're in this tax bracket, at a certain point, instead of being able write off 36 or 39 percent, you're writing off 28 percent. Now, if it's really a charitable contribution, I'm assuming that that shouldn't be a determining factor as to whether you're given that $100 to the homeless shelter down the street. And so this provision would affect about 1 percent of the American people. They would still get deductions. It's just that they wouldn't be able to write off 39 percent. In that sense, what it would do is it would equalize -- when I give $100, I'd get the same amount of deduction as when some -- a bus driver, who's making $50,000 a year, or $40,000 a year gives that same $100. Right now he gets 28 percent -- he gets to write off 28 percent; I get to write off 39 percent. I don't think that's fair. So I think this was a good idea. I think it is a realistic way for us to raise some revenue from people who benefited enormously over the last several years. It's not going to cripple them; they'll still be well-to-do. And ultimately, if we're going to tackle the serious problems that we've got, then in some cases those who are more fortunate are going to have to pay a little bit more. Q But it's not the well-to-do people, it's the charities. Given what you just said, are you confident the charities are wrong when they contend that this would discourage giving? THE PRESIDENT: Yes, I am. I mean, if you look at the evidence, there's very little evidence that this has a significant impact on charitable giving. I'll tell you what has a significant impact on charitable giving, is a financial crisis in an economy that's contracting. And so the most important thing that I can do for charitable giving is to fix the economy; to get banks lending again, to get businesses opening their doors again, and to get people back to work again. Then I think charities will do just fine. Charity | President Obama | Presidential Press Conference | Taxes | White House Press Corps Labels: Charity, President Obama, Presidential Press Conference, Taxes, White House Press Corps >> Full Story
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 1:21:00 PM Willing To Listen But Not Reconsider - White House Press Briefing by Robert Gibbs 3/5/09 — Friday, March 06, 2009 —  MR. GIBBS: Jake.Q Senator Baucus, who obviously will play an important role in the formulation of health care policy, said that he has concerns, it's an issue, the tax increase that you guys are proposing when it comes to itemized deductions. You've said everything is on the table when it comes to health care. Are you willing to consider a different revenue stream than that tax increase to fund health care? MR. GIBBS: Well, I do think all issues are on the table. Obviously that was a major -- a major part of the event today, and the ideas that we hope will be gathered from it. Let's, though, just discuss the -- I assume you're talking about the charitable contribution -- Q The itemized deductions for mortgage and -- MR. GIBBS: I mean, a middle-class family donates a dollar to charity, they get 15 cents off their income tax; Bill Gates donates a dollar to charity, he takes 35 cents off his income tax. The proposal that the White House has would simply reduce those levels to the same levels that we saw during the Reagan administration. So I think certainly that's important to understand. But the broader issue of whether all ideas are on the table I think is one that the President brought to this and wanted to hear -- wants to hear from all of those involved as to what their ideas are. I think it's going to be important to have that free flow and that exchange of ideas, to have this debate in an open and transparent way. Q So you're willing to reconsider -- MR. GIBBS: Well, I think the President is correct in saying that he's listening to all the ideas that people bring to the table. Charity | Health Care | President Obama | Press Briefing | Robert Gibbs | Taxes | White House Press Corps Labels: Charity, Health Care, President Obama, Press Briefing, Robert Gibbs, Taxes, White House Press Corps >> Full Story
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 5:48:00 PM Charity Begins With Government - White House Press Briefing by OMB Director Peter Orszag 2/26/09 — Thursday, February 26, 2009 —  Q Peter, for those who are making more than $250,000, I understand that they're going to be limited in terms of the itemized deductions for their -- filing their taxes, including charitable contributions. Considering that at least one-third of charitable organizations last year took a real nosedive, and you have some big names -- the Salvation Army, Goodwill, American Red Cross -- how do you stop the bleeding when it comes to those charitable groups, considering that you're now taking away an incentive to actually contribute?DIRECTOR ORSZAG: Well, let me be very clear. In the recovery act, the President supported -- and contained in the recovery act, there's $100 million to support non-profits and charities as we get through this period of economic difficulty. In addition, the recovery itself will provide a strong boost not only to charities, but to the overall economy and to the people who contribute to charities. But I think the real question as you look out over time is the following: When a middle-income family makes a $1,000 contribution to a charity, they save $150 in their taxes. When Bill Gates makes that same contribution to that same charity, he saves $3,500 in his taxes. All we're saying is we think Bill Gates should get a $2,800 tax break -- still a lot larger than a middle-income family -- rather than the $3,500 one. Q And to the larger point, is there a concern that you have people -- that the wealthier folks who are providing the jobs, who are spending the money, and also contributing to charitable organizations -- that in some ways they are going to start saving, that they’re not going to give, and that they're going to undermine the success or the progress that you're making? DIRECTOR ORSZAG: I really don't think so. I think what drives charitable contributions is overall economic growth, is other motivations. It's -- typically, again, it's not done for a tax incentive, but rather out of benevolence or some other related desire. And furthermore, if you really wanted to get wonky, if you look at all the provisions in the budget, even from a narrow economic perspective, I think you'll see that there's roughly a wash in terms of the financial incentives for giving to charitable contributions -- to charities. Charity | Economy | Obama Administration | Office of Management and Budget | Peter Orszag | Press Briefing | White House Press Corps Labels: Charity, Economy, Obama Administration, Office of Management and Budget, Peter Orszag, Press Briefing, White House Press Corps >> Full Story
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 7:44:00 PM
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