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Obama: Debt deal alone won't fix economy
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Obama: Time to "eat our peas" and pass debt deal
Updated at 1:10 p.m. ET
President Obama is still seeking the largest deficit reduction deal possible as part of a package deal to raise the debt ceiling, he said in a press conference today.
"I continue to push congressional leaders for the largest possible deal," he said from the White House. "It is possible for us to construct a package that would be balanced, would share sacrifice [and] would involve both parties taking on their sacred cows."
Mr. Obama would not even entertain the notion of failing to get a deal done before the end of the month.
"We are going to get this done by August 2," he said.
The president and his economic team have repeatedly warned of catastrophic consequences for the U.S. and global economy if Congress does not increase the debt ceiling -- the amount of money that the U.S. government is technically allowed to borrow -- by August 2. Republicans have insisted on creating a deficit and debt reduction plan as a condition of voting to raise the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling.
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Mr. Obama has been seeking a deal that includes $4 trillion in budget savings over a decade, but House Speaker John Boehner said on Saturday that a mid-size package of reforms -- closer to $2 trillion in savings, with no tax increases -- is the only politically viable solution.
Mr. Obama said today that he appreciated Boehner's efforts to try to reach a large deal with him, but that the rest of the GOP must now step up to the plate.
"I've been hearing from my Republican friends for some time it is a moral imperative to tackle our debt and deficits in a serious way," Mr. Obama said. "What I've said to them is, let's go."
The president said today he would not accept a smaller, short-term deal. "We might as well do it now," he said. "Pull off the band aid. Eat our peas."
While leaders from both parties agree that the debt ceiling should be raised before August 2, negotiations remained stalled at a White House meeting Sunday night.
The president will reconvene with lawmakers Monday afternoon, and he plans to meet with them every day until a deal is forged.
"We're going to resolve this, and we're going to resolve this for a reasonable period of time and we're going to resolve it in a serious way," he said.
Mr. Obama said leaders have already agreed to a series of spending cuts that will make the government "leaner, meaner, more effective, more efficient, and give taxpayers a greater bang for their buck." Those include cuts to defense and health spending, he said.
He added that both parties must now be willing to take on their "sacred cows." For Democrats that means modifying programs like Social Security. For Republicans, that means bringing in new tax revenues.
Obama prepared to "take heat" over Soc. SecurityObama: Debt deal alone won't fix economy
Members of the GOP have complained that "bringing in revenues" refers to raising taxes on Americans and job-creating businesses. However, Mr. Obama emphasized today that he was simply asking Republicans to agree to closing some tax loopholes some years down the road.
"I want to be crystal clear: Nobody has talked about increasing taxes now, nobody has talked about increasing taxes next year," he said. "What we have talked about is that starting in 2013 that we have gotten rid of some of these egregious loopholes that are benefiting corporate jet owners or oil companies at a time where they're making billions of dollars of profits."
Mr. Obama said Republicans must agree to raise revenues.
"I do not see a path to a deal if they don't budge, period," he said.
He pointed out that Democrats control the Senate. "And so if in fact Mitch McConnell and John Boehner are sincere, and I believe they are, that they don't want to see the U.S. government default, then they're going to have to compromise just like Democrats are going to have to compromise; just like I have shown myself willing to compromise."
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Look at a sample of tax rates around the world:
US personal tax rate: 35% US corporate tax rate: 35% US VAT: 0%
Mexico personal tax rate: 30% Mexico corporate tax rate: 30% Mexico VAT: 16%
UK personal tax rate: 50% UK corporate tax rate: 28% UK VAT: 17.5%
France personal tax rate: 40% France corporate tax rate: 33.33% France VAT: 19.6%
Germany personal tax rate: 42% Germany corporate tax rate: 33.3% Germany VAT: 19%
Denmark personal tax rate: 51.5% Denmark corporate tax rate: 25% Denmark VAT: 25%
Netherlands personal tax rate: 52% Netherlands corporate tax rate: 25.5% Netherlands VAT: 19%
http://www.taxrates.cc/
JEFFREY HART
How to destroy a nation
Launch a war and cut taxes as George W. Bush did
David Frum, one of the most intelligent of the conservatives, wrote a book in 2003 titled "The Right Man," mean?ing George W. Bush. On page 26, long before 9/11, he describes his first day as a speech?writer for President Bush.
The new administration was just then hiring staff. Michael Gerson, in charge of speech writ?ing, took Mr. Frum to the Oval Office to meet the president. In a brief conversation, Mr. Bush said he "would dig Saddam out of power." The inva?sion of Iraq was being planned soon after Mr. Bush became president.
Apart from the thousands of people killed, and apart from the strategic fact that the war removed a powerful enemy of Iran, the war was an economic disaster for A merica.
In The Washington Post recently, Joseph Stiglitz and Linda J. Bilmes, co-authors of "The Three Trillion Dollar War," wrote a column titled "Costs of the War Still Being Tallied." Mr. Stiglitz, a Nobel laureate in economics, teaches at Columbia University. Ms. Bilmes lectures on public policy at Harvard.
A few excerpts: "Writing in early 2008 we put the total cost to the United states of the Iraq war at $3 trillion. & It appears that our $3 trillion estimate (which accounted for both government expenses and the war's broader impact on the U.S. economy), was, if anything, too low. For example, the cost of diagnosing, caring for and compensating disabled veterans has proved higher than we expected & "When the United States went to war in Iraq, the price of oil was less than $25 a barrel. And futures markets expected it to remain at that level. With the war, prices started to soar, reach?ing $140 a barrel by 2008. & That would add at least $250 billion to the direct costs to our origi?nal assessment of the war's costs. & But the cost of this increase doesn't stop there. Higher oil prices had a devastating effect of the economy.
"There is no question that the Iraq war added substantially to the federal debt. This was the first time in American history that the govern?ment cut taxes as it went to war. & The result: a war funded completely by borrowing. U.S. debt soared from $6.4 trillion in March 2003 to $10 trillion in 2008 (before the financial crisis): At least a quarter of that increase was directly attributable to the war. And that doesn't include future health care and disability payments for veterans. & "To put it more bluntly: The war contributed indirectly to the disastrous monetary policy and regulations. & Loose monetary policy and lax regulations kept the economy going - right up until the housing bubble burst, bringing on the economic freefall."
Note: According to t he congressional Com?mittee on Taxation, the 2001 Bush tax cuts cost the federal government $4.08 trillion.
Remember: George W. Bush inherited a sur?plus from the Clinton administration.
Claims about Iraq's weapons of mass destruc?tion were used to promote the Iraq war to the American people and to Congress. Remember "The smoking gun might be a mushroom cloud"? Sure. The Israelis had destroyed Iraq's only reac?tor. There were no WMDs, not even a tube of Chi?nese toothpaste. I can document, as others have, the charge that the Bush claims about WMD were not mistakes but lies, or, as intelligence expert Thomas Powers said, "fabrications."
After this economically suicidal performance, the Republicans are telling us, gleefully, that we cannot afford Medicare or health care cov?erage for all. Since 1935 the Republicans have hated Social Security. In fact, Mr. Bush tried to "reform" that.
George W. Bush did more damage to this nation than Osama bin Laden could dream of doing.
Jeffrey Hart is a professor of English emeritus at Dartmouth College (jeffrey.hart@dartmouth.
edu). In 1968 he was a speechwriter for then-Gov.
Ronald Reagan and for presidential candidate Richard Nixon.
Please don't reply with "I didn't run up this bill", because either directly or indirectly we all had a hand in it. Also please save "the wealthy should pay more" because first off, what is 'wealthy' what income level is that? Honestly its different to everyone depending on what your wealth is. Those that have more then you, you will consider wealthy.
You know the billionaires who appointed Governor Walker are quaking in their boots. If we can win this battle in the Class War of the billionaires, we can really take them out everywhere.
And voila, we have this current mess.
start be limiting the use of Air DForce one to government business and no excess baggage like your kids , your mother inlaw , your relatives who not only fly for free they eat for free and enjoy the benifits . i am tired of paying taxes to have mrs odumbdumb and her entire staff and family go galavanting around the world on vacation when is the US voters going to stand up and say stop your crap