White House to McConnell: The tax issue is not over

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Talking Points Memo ‏@TPM

White House to McConnell: The tax issue is not over


The White House responded Monday afternoon to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's (R-KY) recent contentions that the tax issue is "finished" after the fiscal cliff agreement.

"No," spokesman Jay Carney said during his press briefing. "We believe any further deficit reduction, which there must be in the president's view, must be pursued with the same balanced approach the president has insisted on up to now."

He said new revenues are still necessary and that President Obama still supports tax reform.

"There are loopholes that are crying out to be closed," Carney said.


read: http://tpm.ly/Xfcr8s

related:

Pew: Obama The Clear Winner Of Fiscal Cliff Negotiatons; 66 Percent Disapprove Of GOP’s Handling Of Talks
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/pew-obama-clear-winner-of-fiscal-cliff-negotiatons

[Dkc05]

1. Need to have a National Sales taxe on purchases

Need a national sales tax on items purchased on the internet and that would raise billions of dollars. The taxe also should be on otems sold anywhere. make that tax about 2% and your could raise trillions of dollars. Its easy and fast everybody has to pay it. no exemption.s.

Close all the loopholes

[riverbendviewgal]

2. and under the table working and selling goods

should be heavily penalized when it is caught.

[Dkc05]

3. put them in Jail

this would cut offenders from cheating the system.

[lumberjack_jeff]

12. What this country obviously needs is more reasons to put people in jail. n/t

[panader0]

40. "under the table working"? Do you know that only the very poorest work that way?

I'm in construction, and any "real" job, like building a house or business structure requires a license, a bank loan, and cannot be done "under the table". The little jobs, like a porch or patio paving or such, are the only ones that can be under the table, or even bartered for. A few hundred bucks perhaps. There is no point in going after the trivial amount of money there. Putting these poor people, who are doing what they have to to live, in jail would be far costlier to the nation.

[tkmorris]

4. Sales taxes are horribly regressive in nature

I might get on board if the tax is only on items that are not necessary. A luxury tax so to speak.

Taxing the working poor an additional 2% when they buy things like food or clothing is not acceptable to me at all.

[Dkc05]

5. But they fix the probably with the deficit

Tax everything and we can create trillions of dollars of new revenue to pay for the government. NO MORE DEFICIT.

[Squinch]

9. Sales taxes are regressive taxes that hurt the poor and don't require anything from the rich.

They are a bad, bad idea.

[Dkc05]

22. They are a good Idea everybody pays as everybody buys something.

Why give everthing away. even the folks on assistance have to pay.

[abelenkpe]

29. Why are you on every thread

trolling your right wing nonsense about regressive sales taxes?

[Dkc05]

30. passionate about the issue.

Sorry that upsets you. I care about Clean air, good schools and rights of humans . Whats your story.

[abelenkpe]

31. passionate and wrong

I suggest you read up on the subject of progressive taxation and stay away from the right wing source that has you so confused. That you think charging people barely getting by on social security and assistance more in taxes rather than looking for revenue from those who can afford to pay more is off base and cruel.

[Squinch]

34. Even folks on assistance, most of whom already pay a higher percentage of federal taxes than Romney

in the form of payroll and sales taxes, have to pay. And the poor have to pay as much as Romney and those in his tax bracket.

For Romney it means not having an oil change on the 9th car on his car elevator.

For the person on assistance it means that their kid doesn't eat.

Yeah. Great idea.

[Veilex]

35. Your absolutely right!

Nearly everyone else is already paying sales tax, I say we dramatically increase sales taxes on the rich! In fact, lets make it proportional to their income so they pay the same share of their income that lower wage earners are. After all, why give everything away? This way, even corporations on government assistance have to pay!!! Dkc05, your a genius... I'll submit a petition right now in your honor!

[Squinch]

45. Hehehehehe

[demwing]

43. sales taxes burden the poor

Last edited Tue Jan 8, 2013, 09:38 AM - Edit history (1)

Because the wealthy spend a lower percentage of their $$$. Sales taxes encourage the wealthy to hoard.

[riverbendviewgal]

17. In Canada we pay a lot higher taxes they the US

Not everything we buy is taxed...like real food. But fast food, pop/soda, chips and candy is taxed. Attending movies/renting movies are taxed. All booze and restaurant mills...
Between Provincial and Federal it runs about 13 percent....in ontario ...could be more or less in other provinces.


We grumble but we do have good services...especially our health care, doctor and hospital, etc. To me it is a bargain compared to your health care costs and charges by your health insurance companies

[Dkc05]

6. even have to pay it on snap program and other welfare programs.

Everybody pays it. NO EXCUSE PROGRAM.

[riverbendviewgal]

7. What do people buy under those programs?

food? clothes? rent? Medical supplies?

[Politicub]

36. I lump flat taxers in with the flat earthers

A sale tax increase on the poor will hurt them far more than the rich.

$5 extra on a bill may not be that big of a deal to you, but it can mean the difference between eating or not for someone of limited means.

This isn't something that's open to interpretation. $5 out of the pocket of someone who makes $7,000 per year is far more of a hit than to someone who makes $700k per year. This isn't rocket science

I do like the luxury tax idea that someone shared above.

[Squinch]

37. You seem very excited by the prospect of making things even harder on people

who barely have enough to get by.

Hope people treat YOU better than you are willing to treat them.

[demwing]

44. that's a horrible idea

Unprincipled, mean spirited, and dumb

[russspeakeasy]

19. You are right.

[lumberjack_jeff]

11. No. Sales taxes suck.

Washington state is dependent on sales taxes and because of it we have the most regressive tax system in the country.

[Dkc05]

28. It works when everybody has to pay. No exceptions

Sales taxes work

[lumberjack_jeff]

32. They only "work" if the goal is starving government and the poor.

http://www.ctj.org/html/whopays.htm

In the state with the highest reliance on sales taxes - the "fair tax" utopia - the top 1% pay less than 4% of their income in taxes. The bottom 20% pay 17% of their income in taxes.

They are patently unfair, subject to evasion, and render society ungovernable through inability to project revenues.

[rickford66]

23. a tax on stock and bond transactions

A one cent tax per share or per bond tax on each transaction. It would raise a few bucks and maybe ... just maybe .... put a dent in the stock market volatility. We are always told that stocks are a great investment, so maybe they should be held for more than a few seconds.

Sorry. I notice someone else suggested the same thing. I'll second the motion.

[Dkc05]

26. Why not make it a $1.00 per share --- The rich can pay it.

One Cent is not enough. I would agree to it. Also perhaps a penny per text message that would be a good thing too. or a penny per facebook posting.

[demwing]

8. Obama, breaking bad, just went full Heisenberg

and this tax shit isn't over till Obama SAYS its over....

[Cymric]

10. Simple solution

Have a $.003 tax on stock trades. The amount of mass trades that the shear number of electronic trades will amount to millions if not billions of dollars and the tax is so small that it would not be noticable.

[riverbendviewgal]

18. That would be sensible

very sensible.

[democrattotheend]

20. I read an article recently about why that hasn't worked in France

The article was complicated and I didn't understand all of it, but one point that did make sense was that a stock trade tax would significantly drive up the administrative costs of mutual funds and make them less able to trade frequently to get the best return. This could have a negative impact on working people's 401(k)'s and other retirement savings.

Maybe if they limited the tax to hedge funds, which are only available to very rich investors, it would be better.

I was all for a transaction tax but that article (which I can't seem to find) convinced me to take a closer look.

[rickford66]

24. nonsense

My 401K's made it very hard to trade everyday. If the broker gets his commission and the stock documentaion can get reported at the speed of light, I'm sure the transaction fee can be added on quite easily.

[democrattotheend]

25. You don't trade every day, but the mutual funds you invest in might

So the administrative expenses that the mutual fund deducts from everyone's share would be higher, and thus the return would be lower.

[rickford66]

33. Right

and thats' why "we" invest because of the stock price and not the income from the corporation. That's why corporations dump employees for the short gain cash flow to boost their stock price. CEO's only care about the stock price anymore ..... that's not what stocks were designed to do. They were for "investing" in a corporation to make money when the corporation succeeds. Now we have people making millions on corporations going down the tubes. Guess who suffers for that? Not those at the top.

[democrattotheend]

38. I definitely agree with all of that

Corporate culture is so messed up these days that I am losing faith that any amount of regulation can really fix the problem of companies not valuing their employees and only caring about short term stock price at the expense of the long term well-being of the company. I could go on for hours about what is wrong with corporate law and corporate America in general.

However, I think it is mostly the hedge funds that are the real drivers of short term return at the expense of all else. Mutual funds tend not to be activist shareholders that push for undesirable corporate changes to maximize share price.

Maybe they could exempt mutual funds from the tax, or give mutual funds a certain number of free trades if the average account balance is below a certain threshold. That way you can minimize the impact on middle class workers trying to save for retirement in a post-DB pension world.

[rickford66]

41. I'm glad you agree ... but

Computerized trading is done by more than hedge funds. If someone is trading thousands of shares when the price changes by a fraction of a cent, the addition of a one cent tax would definitely slow the whole thing down. The advice the peons are given is "invest for the long term" while the traders are holding stock for less than 30 seconds. If my mutual fund slows down its trading, I have no problem with it. Everyone will be playing by the same rules.

[kentuck]

13. Good !!

They need to hear this over and over!

rec

[hfojvt]

15. Why do I get the feeling that Obama is gonna "eat their lunch" again?

Boy, wouldn't it be awful if Republicans were forced to accept Obama's "tax reform"?

Because what is Obama's FIRST PRINCIPLE of "reform"?

"1. Lower tax rates."

http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/taxes


Well, if that isn't likely to be ANOTHER huge gift to the top 20%, then I don't know what will.

That goes directly against my own idea of reform, which would involve HIGHER tax rates, particularly on higher incomes.

But there's Obama, fighting on the other side.

Republicans will probably make a big show of opposing him, before they weepingly concede to more tax breaks for the upper class.

[sheshe2]

16. Please proceed Mr President!

We're behind you all the way. Let's see if we can make Mitch cry.

[demwing]

42. "please proceed"

Just doesn't mean what it used to

[Cha]

21. I knew that..

when Mitch, the wannabe DICtator, arrogantly sputtered that out..

Pew: Obama The Clear Winner Of Fiscal Cliff Negotiatons; 66 Percent Disapprove Of GOP’s Handling Of Talks

Thanks for the links, bigtree

[Dkc05]

27. Easy tax is a Penny per Facebook or text message tax. That would raise trillions

Also perhaps a penny per text message that would be a good thing too. or a penny per facebook posting.