All the President’s taxes

While we are still learning the complete details of the President’s new tax proposals, allegedly to be used to reduce the debt and deficit, some in the Senate have already offered their thoughts.

As to the idea to reduce the “subsidies” to “big oil and gas”, we hear this from Senator Mary Landreau (D. La).

That offset is not going to fly, and [Mr. Obama] knows that,

and this from Senator Mark Begich (D. Ak.),

Just picking out one industry is not acceptable.

Next we have Senator Chuck Schumer (D. N.Y.) who states,

$250,000 makes you really rich in Mississippi, but it doesn’t make you rich at all in New York…

Here is what Senator Ben Nelson (D. Neb.) has to say,

Tax increases have to come second to cutting [spending]…I was just home over the weekend and that’s what [my constituents] were talking about.

Senator Tom Carper (D. De.) said,

I think the best jobs bill that can be passed is a comprehensive long-term deficit-reduction plan.  That’s better than everything else the president is talking about combined.

And this from Senator Jim Webb (D. Va.), who calls the President’s tax proposals,

…’terrible’ adding ‘[w]e shouldn’t increase taxes on ordinary income…[t]here are other ways to get there.

And, finally, Senator Joe Lieberman (I. Ct.) says the President’s plan,

…doesn’t represent the kind of comprehensive tax reform, entitlement reform and spending reduction that we need to get our country back into balance.  And to me, therefore, it doesn’t pass the test.  And I don’t think it can be passed.

So, the next time you hear that it is the pesky Republicans, or the pesky Tea Party that is standing in the way, blocking the President’s every turn, remember the above quotes.  They are not exactly a ringing endorsement for the President’s proposals.

 

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SoundOffSister

The Sound Off Sister was an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and special trial attorney for the Department of Justice, Criminal Division; a partner in the Florida law firm of Shutts & Bowen, and an adjunct professor at the University of Miami, School of Law. The Sound Off Sister offers frequent commentary concerning legislation making its way through Congress, including the health reform legislation passed in early 2010.

4 Comments

  1. Anybody but Obama on September 21, 2011 at 5:08 pm

    SOS in the Jobs Bill pages 133-134 Sec. 376 has some language about state soverignity and it seems to take away the protections afforded under the 11th amendment of the Constitution. I once stayed in a Holiday Inn but its to much mumbo jumbo (BS) for me. If you get some time maybe you could look at it.



    • SoundOffSister on September 23, 2011 at 8:20 pm

      Sorry for the late response.? The 11th Amendment deals with the types of cases that do not have to be brought?in a federal (as opposed to a state) court.? All the provisions of this bill that you are questioning say is that, basically, if? you have some sort of a claim under this law (which, at the moment, isn’t even a bill), the claim belongs in federal court.
      Mumbo jumbo…even without the Holiday Inn, lawmakers (mostly lawyers) try their best to write laws that no one can understand.?? It’s called, unwritten of course, “the lawyers relief act”.



  2. Murphy on September 23, 2011 at 9:01 am

    WOW! Dumocrats? talking sense, either they’re scared or I never recovered from my last hospital visit and I’ve died an gone to heaven (nope still alive just heard Malloy on the radio) .



  3. Lynn on September 23, 2011 at 1:04 pm

    I know the leopards would change their spots when the wind changed.



Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama D-Ill., speaks about race during an address in Philadelphia, Tuesday, March 18, 2008. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

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