Dems Duel Over Taxes

Washington Post: Obama Calls For More Rebates As Clinton Defends Gas Tax Break Proposal

(Washingtonpost.com)  This story was written by Perry Bacon Jr. and Shailagh Murray.

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Two days before critical primaries in Indiana and North Carolina, Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) scolded both Sen. Barack Obama (D) and "elite opinion" Sunday for opposing her proposals to fix the ailing economy, while the senator from Illinois accused her of political pandering.

"There's a big difference between us, and the question is: Who understands what you're going through, and who do you count on being on your side?" Clinton said to several hundred supporters in Fort Wayne. "I believe I have what it takes to stand up and fight for you when you need a president on your side."

Obama appeared to acknowledge that Clinton's populist economic message is finding a receptive audience in Indiana when he called for a second round of government tax rebates. "Let me tell you something, people are really hurting," Obama said during his own appearance in Fort Wayne. "I am here to tell you, you're not on your own. We're in this together."

The two scoured the state before a primary that Obama last month called the "tiebreaker" in the Democratic contest. He is hoping that victories here and in North Carolina would build pressure on Clinton to exit the race for the party's nomination, and both candidates are betting that their rhetoric on the economy -- Obama insisting voters will reject easy answers, Clinton with her proposals for short-term relief -- will give them an edge Tuesday.

The candidates taped appearances on competing Sunday-morning talk shows from Indianapolis, campaigned in Fort Wayne, stopped in towns across the state (Clinton in South Bend, Obama in Elkhart) and returned late in the day to Indianapolis, where they again sparred over gasoline taxes in consecutive speeches at a state Democratic Party dinner.

Sunday was their last full day of campaigning here before Tuesday's vote. Clinton will make two stops on Monday in North Carolina, and Obama has three appearances scheduled. Obama has led by double digits in North Carolina polls for weeks.

In their television appearances, Obama continued to face tough questions about his controversial former pastor, and Clinton was criticized for her aggressive stance toward Iran. But both also renewed their debate over Clinton's proposal to suspend the federal gasoline tax for the summer months.

Obama said his previous support of suspending the gas tax in Illinois, when he was a state senator, was a "mistake." He derided Clinton's plan on NBC's "Meet the Press," calling it "a political response to a serious problem that we neglected for decades."

His campaign launched a new television ad labeling the idea a "bogus gas tax gimmick."

Obama said his proposal for a tax cut for the middle class, as part of an economic stimulus package, would be more effective than Clinton's gas tax suspension.

"Look, people do need serious relief," he said. "They are getting hammered. I mean -- people who can't go on job searches because they can't fill up their gas tank. And so, what I've said is, let's accelerate the second half of a tax stimulus proposal that I have put forward that would put, immediately, hundreds of dollars into people's pockets to get through the summer."

Clinton has her own tax-cut proposals that benefit the middle class, but she said the gas tax holiday would be an important short-term measure.

In ignoring a question about whether any prominent economist embraces the gas tax holiday, Clinton defended her proposal and attacked "this mind-set where somehow elite opinion is always on the side of doing things that really disadvantage the vat majority of Americans."

"I'm not going to put my lot in with economists," Clinton said in a town hall meeting organized by ABC's "This Week With George Stephanopoulos." "When the federal government, through the Fed and Treasury, gave $30 billion in a bailout to Bear Stearns, I didn't hear anybody jump in and say, 'That's not going according to the market, that's rewarding irresponsible behavior.' "

The former first lady was combative in her TV appearance, putting host Stephanopoulos on the defensive by suggesting that he, like her, was a private opponent of the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement in the Bill Clinton White House.

"Now, you remember this, because George did work in that '92 campaign, and George and I actually were against NAFTA," Clinton said, referring to Stephanopoulos's work as a senior adviser to Bill Clinton. "I'm talking about him in his previous life, before he was an objective journalist and didn't have opinions about such matters."

Focusing on the economy in their talk show appearances, Clinton and Obama played down the controversial comments of the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., the former pastor of Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ, which Obama attends. Clinton, when asked about Wright at the town hall meeting, said that "we should definitely move on" from the issue.

Obama, meanwhile, said that he would "absolutely not" seek Wright's counsel if he were elected president.

Despite the stakes and the toll of the long campaign, both candidates appeared in good spirits.

"I've been talking all the time; can I get a throat lozenge?" Clinton said in South Bend as she began coughing and briefly lost her voice. "Glass of water," she shouted.

"See, that's why we need universal health care," she said to laughter. She cut her standard stump speech down to about 20 minutes.

Obama played basketball in Elkhart, joking that he was a "pressure player" as he knocked down several shots, although he lost the game to a local 14-year-old.

Over the weekend, Obama showed up at picnic sites, playgrounds and roller-skating rinks across Indiana with his wife, Michelle, and daughters Malia and Sasha. The girls had not appeared on the campaign trail since before January's Iowa caucuses. Obama even visited a house in Noblesville that his mother's family had owned for generations before moving to Kansas.

Obama was not reaching his usual crowds of thousands in the small-scale events, but campaign advisers were betting that the images would resonate more effectively with Indiana voters by showing Obama as down-to-earth and in touch with ordinary Hoosier life. He kept his prepared remarks short, focused on his critique of Clinton's proposed gas tax holiday and offered a hefty dose of personal detail, including how his grandfather had gone to college on the GI Bill and how his mother had collected food stamps.

The Clinton campaign sought to introduce a new issue into the campaign in its late stages. A mailer criticized his stance on the Second Amendment and said: "Where does Barack Obama really stand on guns? Depends on who Barack Obama is talking to." The flier invoked his controversial comments during a closed fundraiser that working-class voters "cling" to guns and religion because they believe that the government has let them down.

[pensacola88]

You can''t spend taxes, until you create more workers first, to pay them.

[agog2]

Come on American Voters. This is really simple to understand. If you need to fill up you gas tank and you see two AIMCO gas stations. One of the stations has a sign saying Regular $3.00 dollars a gallon and the other AIMCO station has a sign saying Regular $3.18 cents a gallon. Which gas station are you going to pull into to fill up your gas tank?

[tawpdawg11]

"I don''t care what the experts on economics say."


This is the exact same go-it-alone bullheadedness that has brought our country to the brink of depression. How can INDY and NC want more of this shid? I gotta believe Indy voters will see this gas tax thing for the bribe that it is and GET RID OF CLINTON! SHE IS MORE OF THE SAME! WE NEED CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN! Please Indiana, please North Carolina.....activate the ejector seat. Throw the bum OUT!

[tawpdawg11]

Concerning the gas tax issue-My vote is worth a lot more than 30 dollars over the whole summer, Mrs, Clinton. If you want me to switch my vote you''''ll have to up the ante. I''''ve already donated to Barrack''''s campaign to the tune of three-hundred dollars. You make it five-hundred dollars and I''''ll think about it.-INDY VOTER

[hlryshmnbald]

EUWWWEEEEE!

LOOK AT HILLARYS WIG SLIPPING OFF HER HEAD, AND(!)
SHE HAS A 5 O''''CLOCK MUSTACHE SHADOW!!

THESE GW BUSH PHOTO OPS ARE GETTING DOWN RIGHT CREEPY! SHE CAN LIE HER WAY OUT OF HER CONTINUOUS LIES. SHE-MAN BUTCH LESBIAN LOOKING TO POUNCE ON THE SAME YOUNG GIRL PAGES OL SLICK WILLY HAD GIVING HIM K N O B J O B S!

JEEPERS CREEPERS, WHERE DID YOU GET THOSE MANLY LOOKING PEEPERS? RIGHT MS SHE-MAN MASCULINE LESBIAN PRESIDENT: A FIRST OF FIRSTS, WITH ROSIE ODONELL AS VP!!

[truthyness]

DON''T FORGET THAT A TAX CUT THIS SUMMER WILL ALSO BRING DOWN THE PRICE OF FOOD. (food is delivered in trucks that eat a lot of gas)

[lochlan-2009]

Why not put huge taxes on the Oil Companies?

Do these people have any brains, around 80% percent (it''s all money stollen from us anyway) would get the oil company profits closer to what they were seeing before the Bush Regime.

Take that 80% and reimburse gas stations for selling their gas for a 50% off discounted price. That will put the cash savings at the pump immediately.

[realpatriot1]

Xlib,

Obama has the solution: a permanent $1,000 tax credit
that doesn''t raid the highway fund, signing a windfall profits tax bill as soon as Bush is out of the White House(sorry Hillary, it won''t happen until then), and doing something about alternative fuels which Bush & Clinton both had 8 years already to do something about.

How about not re-electing the fools who put us in this situation? How''s that fr a solution?

[Syndicate]

I''ll take both tax cuts. Thank you.

[broncfan1661]

I''''''''m not going to put my lot in with economists," Clinton said..
This statement alone should make her unelectable. It says I don''''t care what the experts say.
Posted by hp32970c at 09:36 AM : May 05, 2008
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One of the major problems is we have too many "Experts" and not enough doers in this country. You can see them every time you turn on your TV set. They are sometimes called the "TALKING HEADS"