Obama: Tea Partiers Should Thank Me for Tax Breaks

By: Stephanie Condon
Topics: Economy ,; Obama Administration

While President Obama mingled with Florida Democrats at a Democratic National Committee fundraiser in Miami Thursday night, thousands of Tea Partiers stood across from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue to protest "Tax Day." Mr. Obama admitted to his supporters that the anti-tax rallies "amused" him.

The president went over the laundry list of tax cuts instituted in Washington over the past year.

"In all, we passed 25 different tax cuts last year. And one thing we haven't done is raise income taxes on families making less than $250,000 a year -- another promise that we kept," he told supporters at the Arsht Center for the Performing Arts. "So I've been a little amused over the last couple of days where people have been having these rallies about taxes. You would think they would be saying thank you."

The president argued that America is on the road to recovery and headed in the right direction -- something an overwhelming number of Tea Partiers disagree with.

However, Mr. Obama submitted that "the true measure of our progress is the progress that the American people feel in their lives -- and there's still a lot of hurt out here."

He said that while he is doing everything he can to accelerate private-sector job creation in the short term, he is also trying to create a new foundation for the middle class. While some are warning that anger over administration policies will endanger some Democrats in the midterm elections, Mr. Obama said, "elections will take care of themselves" if politicians stay true to their principles and do what's right for the American people.

"One of the great things about running for president," Mr. Obama said, "is it gives you a little perspective because you realize that these things go in cycles, the mood of the media and how things get portrayed. And so you're like a genius for about a month and then you're an idiot for about six months. Then, you know, you're smart again for -- you're not as smart as you were, but you're a little smarter than they thought you were, then you're an idiot again."

People shouldn't focus on the day-to-day politics and polls, he said.

"What you've got to focus on is that true North, that lodestar, which is, are the things we're doing over the long term going to help not just this generation but the next generation? Is this going to make America stronger?," he said.

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Stephanie Condon
Stephanie Condon is a political reporter for CBSNews.com.
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by carwatt April 21, 2010 8:34 AM EDT: BO's arrogance never seizes to amaze! BO this is not a becoming trait, might try a little humility!!; Reply to this comment


by ThomasJeffersonLives April 20, 2010 11:35 PM EDT: We know what this a**hole really wants - he wants power. Like any bleeding heart liberal, he doesn't care about the poor and downtrodden - all he gives a d*mn about is getting higher approval ratings. Obama is a Marxist. I repeat "Obama IS a Marxist". Just a logical statement - don't believe me, look it up (try: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marxism). Make your own conclusion. Remember power corrupts, but absolute power corrupts, absolutely.; Reply to this comment


by improana April 20, 2010 2:11 PM EDT: Yes, Mr. President, thank you! Thank you for your strategies to ignore the clear will of the American people. Thank you for dividing this country by bludgeoning and demonizing anyone who doesn't agree with your socialist agenda. Thank you for distorting and hiding the details of your programs from the public by refusing access to legislations despite your promises of transparency. Thank you for rushing bills through Congress using scare tactics and fear-mongering.
Thank you for you "stimulus bill", which was an utter failure because this one bill will add another $2 trillion more dollars to the deficit. Thank you for misleading the public by using your 2009 1.4 trillion deficit as the baseline for your new budget, forgetting that you have already added bailouts and stimulus packages to that which will increase the deficits by another $5 trillion to our nation's deficit. Thanks especially for the mortgage bailout plan, where lenders were forced to provide loans to people who didn't qualify so they could buy houses, and are now left with foreclosures and homelessness because they could not keep up their payments. Thanks for your promise of your stimulus plan, that would provide 3 million jobs for the unemployed, while more than two years later we have the highest unemployment rate our country has seen in the last two decades. Oh, I appreciate your double-talk about "saving jobs", and reported increased jobs while the truth that 2.8 million jobs were LOST since the stimulus bill was enacted. 48,000 of you're so called, created jobs were census jobs that would only last a few months. National reports show millions of federal stimulus dollars being sent to districts that did not exist. $6.4 billion was allocated to 440 nonexistent districts, using phantom zip codes. Thank you for spending billions of dollars more than is expected to be recouped in taxes so that non-partisan financial experts can report that the debt will be unsustainable and will destroy the economy of America. Thank you for compromising the nations security of my home place.

Most of all, thank you, Mr. President, for keeping 20% of the population ignorant and misled. You know who they are...the ones who never read the newspapers and keep up on what's really going on. These people listen to the double talk you give and believe that you are fulfilling your campaign promises. Some of them are racially motivated to approve of you no matter what you do because they are ignorant of the real facts. They don't really care about the issues, they just want to be right, so they use slanderous and inflammatory speech and think that it gives them power. All it really does is validate their ignorance. Keep up the good work, Mr. President!; Reply to this comment


by ellensmithee April 20, 2010 9:38 AM EDT: I agree with Obama. Tax protesters should be looking at the country and imagining what it would look like if McCain got into office. This country would be going under. Thank you, President Obama, for cutting my taxes, saving this country's image to the rest of the world, and keeping this country from Depression.; Reply to this comment


by votedforobama April 19, 2010 1:35 PM EDT: Oh thank you for giving our money back!; Reply to this comment


by jayrh April 19, 2010 12:57 PM EDT: anihiel1

It's not how much you get back April 15th!

47% of people do not have an income tax liability for the year!

No one expects the poor to pay... One half of our nation is not poor though!; Reply to this comment

by anihiel1 April 19, 2010 12:15 PM EDT

Why are the TeaPartiers SOOO bent on using lies to anger people? They say 'x' number of people don't pay anything on April 15th. Do you know why so many people did not "pay" taxes? Becuase we had more-than-enough taken out of our paychecks every week to cover our tax liability. We have property taxes, medical bills, mortgage insurance, and countless other deductions that WE ALREADY PAID FOR. I get a refund every year. That does NOT mean I did not pay taxes.

Reply to this comment


by jayrh April 19, 2010 12:54 PM EDT: I hate to comment, just because you seem to really believe what you say.

It isn't how much you get pack, it's how much total income taxes that you pay for the year! Half the country do not pay any total income tax for the year... If you do pay, you are paying for the other half...
TEA party people are mad because they already pay the taxes that you mention plus they have to pay income taxes for themselves and someone else's share too.

The Democratic party wants to go past the tipping point to where enough people get enough benefits from the government that reversing course will be impossible and we will live in a welfare state... This has never been the best system for the majority of any country but it tends to give the left a permanent power base.


by improana April 20, 2010 2:43 PM EDT: What about the illegals who work for cash and do not pay any taxes from their salaries all year? It's more common than you think. Idiot employers can hire illegals and pay them cash so there's no way to trace them. It's a win-win for both employer and employee. They employer gets cheap labor and the employee can't be found. As a payroll specialist that processes paychecks for several different construction companies, I have also seen way too many illegals with several invalid social security cards and they all mark that they have 9 dependents on their forms so that the BARE minimum, if anything at all, is withheld from their paychecks. They don't bother filing federal taxes because they cannot be found on record, since their social security numbers aren't valid. They buy them from peddlers near the border that issue fake cards, or numbers of deceased people. They have 3-5 different names that get moved around so that their names aren't even traceable. It takes too much manpower and too many hours to try to track these thieves down. It's not worth it to report them, and I would lose my job if I did. There are too many that know how to buck the system and avoid paying. So for those that really don't believe there are tons of people out there not paying taxes, you couldn't be MORE wrong!

by tsigili April 19, 2010 10:24 AM EDT

Why? My tax bill for 2009, was the largest EVER!

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by fedup12 April 19, 2010 10:40 AM EDT: still paying for a BS war or two. Obama care hasnt kicked in yet.

Cant be at war for a decade and have a good economy.


by actornaught April 19, 2010 11:26 AM EDT: by tsigili April 19, 2010 10:24 AM EDT
Why? My tax bill for 2009, was the largest EVER!...
...

Mine too, so what? It's anecdotal.

by actornaught April 19, 2010 8:57 AM EDT

by ktgilb1 April 19, 2010 7:51 AM EDT by jayrh April 18, 2010 6:34 PM EDT
...only half the people pay taxes...

This is a tiresome lie. Everybody pays taxes, Social Security, medicare, sales taxes, etc etc.

Here's what galls be about this "47% don't pay income taxes & they're bad people" point. You're ALL blaming the victims.

The sinking middle class is NOT a result of sloth. People want to work, and they always want to get payed as much as possible. That's basic human nature. But as long the corporatists and conservatives want our economy to more directly compete with Third World labor forces, they and their fanbase will have to accept that our tax structure will give those working poor a break.

That is, if fox/rush media ever finds any integrity...

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by jayrh April 19, 2010 12:46 PM EDT: Yes, everyone pays taxes. Not everyone pays income taxes!!!
Only the truly poor should not have to pay income tax!
One half of this nation is not poor!!!

by actornaught April 19, 2010 8:46 AM EDT

by ktgilb1 April 19, 2010 7:38 AM EDT by keepingmediahonest April 16, 2010 3:01 PM EDT
" by chitown639 "Those Tea Party folks sat back and let Bush more than double the deficit during his 8 year in office."

What an idiot! The Tea party didn't exist until Bush spent like a Democrat...Obama has wasted more money in one year than Bush did in eight....
...

Name calling, and not very well placed. Were the "tea party folks" born yesterday? I realize they seem to be as impressionable, but they tend to be older, so you're out of line there.

And "spent like a Democrat"? Whats your source that, fox/rush media? "Tax & Spend Democrats" is just a neocon media slogan. Spending under Reagan/Bush/Bush was by far much worse than ANY democratic administration. And don't bother me with the "democratic congress" thing. It wasn't always the case, AND the budget begins and ends at the president's desk. It was the democrat Bill Clinton that balanced the budget and reduced government. How about that?

You say BHO has already outspent w? No, pretty much impossible, especially since BHO didn't even have his own budget Fiscal Year start until last September. Projected spending looks pretty bad, i admit that, but alot of that was locked in before BHO. That last point is not just the predetermined spending, but if the additional spending on the stimulus hadn't happened, we'd be in economic freefall, and the neocon's would be even louder and more ignorant, if that's possible.

By the way, i think you'll find that some of the tax cuts that "MUST STOP" (and thank you for acknowledging them) WILL stop, since they have a ring of temporary.

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by jayrh April 19, 2010 12:44 PM EDT: If the stimulus hadn't happenend, we would be out of the recession by now. Stimulus packages like this one have not worked in this or other countries historicaly. Obama knows this though, he's studied things like this and paid special attention to FDR. One thing that becomes apparent right away, when you study the history, is that most economists and historians agree that FDR's policies actually prolonged the great depression... Obama looks at this and sees how much of FDR's agenda got passed in those turbulent times... This is where Rahm Emannuel's comment about "never let a good crisis go to waste" comes from!

Instead of getting fiscal responisibility with Obama, we see someone that is growing government, adding entitlements and spending like crazy, all in the middle of a recession!