Group tied to Obama Urging National Sales Tax & Tax Increases

Source

A liberal think tank with close ties to President Barack Obama says the administration and Congress should consider raising taxes on Americans to help close federal budget deficits, an opening salvo in what is likely to be a protracted debate on tax policy.

In a draft report, the Center for American Progress says the size of projected budget gaps requires considering options including tax increases as well as curbs on annual spending and entitlement programs supported by Democrats.

Such ideas could pose problems for Mr. Obama, who pledged during the campaign to not increase taxes on families making less than $250,000. The report, which will be released on Wednesday, said the administration can't rely on taxing richer Americans and companies to reduce the deficit to sustainable levels by 2014 because those groups would see 40% tax increases.

The center's president and chief executive, John Podesta, who is an Obama adviser, said the administration should consider a tax on consumption, such as a value-added tax system similar to that in use in the European Union. Mr. Podesta suggested that its impact should be limited to protect lower-income people, who otherwise might be hit particularly hard.

"As progressives we need to debate the policy merits and likelihood of enacting a range of options -- including designing a small and more progressive value-added tax, changes to the corporate tax code, and taxing upper income earners beyond reversing the Bush tax cuts," Mr. Podesta said in a statement Tuesday.

Things could get very ugly if the govt starts taking even more from Americans. The govt refuses to tighten its belt and shrink, and is now talking about further burdening already cash-strapped Americans. This will just further hurt consumer numbers and will create even further anger and dissent against the administration. If this goes through, I think the riots and revolt could get cranked up another few notches.

Organizations like that need to be taken down by the public. The specific offending agencies need to be dealt with surgically, rather than to hold general tax protests to nobody in particular.

reply to post by Dbriefed


Well its just downright scary that during a horrible recession, when we are not even close to out of it, they would even consider taking more from people. In a healthy economy it would be bad enough, but now it is downright destructive economic policy.

Add a national sales tax, cap and trade, and all the debt the US govt has piled up this year and we are going accelerate to the downside economically.

How anyone can say they didn't see this coming is beyond me. If people just took the time to do the math when Obama promised that families making less than $250k would not see a tax increase they would have known that it was not possible.

There are simply not enough people making over $250k to cover the massive government deficit that Obama continues to run up. This was just one of many empty campaign promises that the masses fell for.

And to think..obama has not come forward on national news, at least offering an appology for his actions..not raising taxes. Looks like the truth is coming out.....the bush family sis till in office* nothing but a bunch of benedict arnolds they all are lairs and thieves*

reply to post by ziggy1706


Anyone continuing to support these policies, regardless of political party, should be voted out of office.

You want to cut the deficit and pay off our debt? Shrink the size and scope of govt, not grow it multiple times over. Obama and other politicians have the gall to chastise Wall Street and private citizens for irresponsible spending and acts, while at the same time supporting even worse from govt. Disgusting.

Agreed johnny2127! very much agree. I work in a retail place. yesterday, we put new labels on water and beverages..5 cent tax aking effect today. Bottled water and beverage under 3 liters ar now taxable* i was reading about this in our paper yesterday...its the states way, ( i live in southwest CT), to get a deficiet clsoed up, something $223 million i belive i read, and to teach a bottle redemption responsablity to people. Article was saying, how parks,beaches have plastic and can bottles littered all over the place. this tax is desiggned, to give incentive to people to want to cash tehm in, like you would a soda botle or beer can/bottle, its all about litter in the medias eyes, but in the states eyes, its all about $$$$ and they mentioned tax on cigarettes, effective tomoorw i thinkk, here in CT, price is going up $1. Rigt now i can get a pack of marlboros for $6.35 after tax, so now thier gunnab $7.35. IN nY, a pack is like $9!!!!! if they want people to quit smoking, i dont see how taxing it helps*** the only answer i have is, they know nicotine is that addictive, and smokers WILL pay the extra cold cabbage for a pack to get our fixx..dosnt seem fair at all, mor elike price gouging, rippiong off the consumer* this si what corprate america is all about: (
Now, the point ot all this is, in a sense, is we have all these new taxes coming in, and obama publicly pledged NOT to allow it. I know states, governemnts are hurting fo rmoney, but its so not fair, us working calss foot the ENTIRE bill, while the big bankers get bailouts with the snap of a finger. it just goes to show,,, politics and overnemnt walk hand in hand, and have signed 'contracts' with eachother, in eachothers blood*

I really don't find this at all shocking. How the heck else did everybody think they were going to get the money to pay for all of these "new reforms"?

What on earth do you think the republicans have been screaming about since day one of the stimulus bill announcement? You don't have to like Republicans, or be one, to understand the basic mathematics involved.

When your GDP is tanking, foreclosures are skyrocketing, income taxes have plummeted do to the surging unemployment rate, military offensives increase, an administration (government size) is nearly doubled, and your entire system is running only on BORROWED money (from a foreign country to boot) -- where did you think the money was going to come from? The sky? Or all of the newly covered healthcare insured that were too broke to pay for it before???

McCain's entire campaign showed that there was no way to pay for Obama's reform initiatives WITHOUT raising taxes. Unfortunately, his campaign was terribly managed. McCain is a terrible speaker, and well, he's a Republican -- so noone even listened.

The worst part of this are the ramifications of this going through -- more than 35% of middle class Americans right now are one paycheck away from poverty and becoming homeless. As soon as taxes goes up, it will be the straw that broke the camel's back and foreclosures and those eligible for government assistance will balloon once again -- unfortunately there will be at that point not enough people left to be able to pay even more.

reply to post by lpowell0627


I am conservative, but I would hardly call McCain a Republican or Conservative. He's more of a Blue Dog Democrat.

And yes, I did respect this in some sort or another. But the reason local, state and federal govt's are hurting for money is they have over spent, over borrowed, and aren't cutting back enough now. Or in the case of the Federal Govt, they are growing exponentially. You can see the seeds of tax revolts growing......

If they ram this through, I could see pockets of civil unrest in the US. I hope they don't and there isn't but I doubt it.

reply to post by lpowell0627


What most people fail to consider is that the Government firmly believes that everything you have,belongs to the Government. All the money you have accumulated is considered their property. All the real property you "own" stands for the public debt. Not Federal lands,publicly held private property.
No one should be suprised that the Government is looking to increase taxes,any and every way they can. The VAT is just the tip of the tax burden iceburg. The Government is looking to tax the people into submission. They want complete dependence on the government for your daily survival. Things are looking bleak to me.