Rich

7:31 PM, Dec 10, 2012 • By DANIEL HALPER

President Barack Obama made his position on tax rates clear today in remarks at the Daimler Detroit Diesel Plant in Redford Michigan.

"[W]hen you put it all together, what you need is a package that keeps taxes where they are for middle-class families; we make some tough spending cuts on things that we don’t need; and then we ask the wealthiest Americans to pay a slightly higher tax rate," said Obama. " And that’s a principle I won’t compromise on, because I’m not going to have a situation where the wealthiest among us, including folks like me, get to keep all our tax breaks, and then we’re asking students to pay higher student loans. Or suddenly, a school doesn’t have schoolbooks because the school district couldn’t afford it. Or some family that has a disabled kid isn’t getting the help that they need through Medicaid."

Obama, however, did signal he was able to compromise elsewhere.

"We can do more than just extend middle-class tax cuts. I’ve said I will work with Republicans on a plan for economic growth, job creation, and reducing our deficits. And that has some compromise between Democrats and Republicans. I understand people have a lot of different views. I’m willing to compromise a little bit," Obama said in prepared remarks.

But he didn't offer details on where he'd compromise with congressional Republicans.

10:25 PM, Dec 9, 2012 • By WILLIAM KRISTOL

The Wall Street Journal editors are unhappy about the present correlation of political forces. Who isn't? They're also, I gather, unhappy about "Beltway sages" who, facing the fact that the Bush tax cuts expire at the end of this year, have suggested Republicans accept a modest increase in tax rates for the wealthy while leading the charge to keep taxes from rising for 98 percent of the American people.

3:31 PM, Dec 6, 2012 • By DANIEL HALPER

President Barack Obama today pledged only to sign a "fiscal cliff" deal that includes tax hikes on the 2 percent.

4:16 PM, Nov 26, 2012 • By ADAM J. WHITE

Warren Buffett is by now no stranger to the national debate over federal tax policy. In 2009, he penned a New York Times op-ed calling for "truly major changes in both taxes and outlays." Two years later, he returned to the Times with a widely publicized call for large tax increases on the "super-rich," noting that his own effective federal tax rate (17 percent) was far less than his employees' rates (ranging from 33 to 41 percent). President Obama liked the idea so much, he called for Congress to pass "the Buffett Rule" in his 2012 state of the union address.

4:31 PM, Oct 29, 2012 • By DANIEL HALPER

Vice President Joe Biden warned that Republicans want to give the rich "one point trillion dollars in tax cuts":

1:06 PM, Jun 21, 2012 • By DANIEL HALPER

Reason reports:

10:42 AM, Jun 7, 2012 • By DANIEL HALPER

President Obama's latest campaign targets Congress for not raising taxes on the wealthies Americans:

11:00 AM, Feb 24, 2012 • By DANIEL HALPER

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, speaking this morning on CNBC:

12:22 PM, Dec 23, 2011 • By DANIEL HALPER

NBC journalist Chuck Todd reportedly asked Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney whether he’d release his tax returns this election cycle. “I never say never,” Romney responded, according to the New York Times. “I don't intend to do so.”

12:00 AM, Sep 24, 2011 • By IRWIN M. STELZER

Willie Sutton separated over 100 banks from $2 million before he was finally incarcerated in 1952.

9:27 AM, Sep 21, 2011 • By JEFFREY H. ANDERSON

In his recently released deficit plan, President Obama lays out the “Buffett Rule” (named, of course, for Warren Buffett, the famous investor and supporter of Obama). The rule, as Obama defines it, is “that people making more than $1 million a year should not pay a smaller share of their income in taxes than middle-class families pay.”

3:31 PM, Jul 5, 2011 • By MARK HEMINGWAY

Steve Hayward makes the case that we do need to raise taxes -- but not on the rich:

1:43 PM, Apr 19, 2011 • By JEFFREY H. ANDERSON

In the New York Times, David Leonhardt discusses what he calls “a popular talking point on cable television and talk radio”—that 47 percent of Americans no longer pay any income tax. Leonhardt grants the point—“The 47 percent figure is not wrong”—but adds, “Over the last 30 years, rates have fallen more for the wealthy, and especially the very wealthy, than for any other group.” But while the notion that something approaching half of all Americans don’t pay income taxes is true, Leonhardt’s claim about tax rates for the wealthy is not.

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