Obama’s Latest Deficit Proposal to Offer More of the Same, Tired, Old Ideas

As Obama Rolls Out His Budget Do-Over This Week, Americans Have Good Reason to Fear His Mammoth Tax Increases on Job Creators

Nearly two months after President Obama announced a 2012 budget plan that was widely panned by independent observers for not confronting America’s debt crisis, White House Senior Advisor David Plouffe announced Sunday that Obama will put forth a deficit reduction proposal this week.

Reports Monday morning suggested that Obama’s plan will rely heavily on that old class warfare standby – raising taxes:

“President Barack Obama will lay out his plan for reducing the nation’s deficit Wednesday, belatedly entering a fight over the nation’s long-term financial future. But in addition to suggesting cuts—the current focus of debate—the White House looks set to aim its firepower on a more divisive topic: taxes.

“He also will call for tax increases for people making over $250,000 a year, a proposal contained in his 2012 budget, and changing parts of the tax code he thinks benefit the wealthy.” (Carol Lee and Damian Paletta, “Obama Puts Taxes on Table,” Wall Street Journal, 4/11/2011)

If it sounds like you’ve seen this movie before, that’s because you have. Obama has already attempted to push through tax increases several times. Obama and his fellow Democrats have formally committed to raising tax rates five times in the last four years:

1. OBAMA FY 2012 BUDGET FEATURES $1.5 TRILLION IN TAX INCREASES ON SMALL BUSINESSES AND JOBS-CREATORS: “All told, the new taxes total $1.5 trillion over 10 years — ranging from new levies on small-business owners and corporations to taxes on energy and banks. Passed as is, the Obama budget would make economic stagnation and 9% unemployment the status quo.” (Editorial Board, “Obama’s Gutless Budget Proposal,” Investor’s Business Daily, 2/14/2011)

2. PROPOSAL FOR FY 2011 SOUGHT $2 TRILLION IN TAX INCREASES: “President Barack Obama’s $3.8 trillion budget for the coming fiscal year raises taxes on businesses and upper-income households by $2 trillion over 10 years and cuts spending on programs with considerable political support, but will still leave the nation with $8.5 trillion in added debt over the next decade.

“The budget plan for fiscal 2011 calls for nearly $1 trillion in tax increases on families with income above $250,000 over the next decade—largely by allowing tax cuts from the administration of George W. Bush to expire.” (Jonathan Weisman, “Wealthy Face Tax Increase,” The Wall Street Journal, 1/31/2010)

3. FY 2010 BUDGET INCLUDED PLAN TO LET CURRENT TAX RATES EXPIRE: “Mr. Obama will also call for letting the Bush tax cuts on income, dividends and capital gains lapse after 2010 for individuals who make more than $250,000 a year. But while the top rate for income would rise to 39.6 percent, the top rate for capital gains and dividends would be 20 percent.” (Jackie Calmes, “Obama Planning to Slash Deficit, Despite Stimulus Spending,” The New York Times, 2/21/2009)

4. FY 2009 DEMOCRAT BUDGET PLANNED FOR EXPIRATION OF LOWERED TAX RATES: “Democrats are strongly inclined not to extend the Bush tax cuts, which they consider targeted toward richer Americans.”(Jay Heflin, “On Eve of Budget Debate, CBO Report Gives Hope to Republicans, Inspires Skepticism Among Democrats,” Congress NOW, 3/3/2008)

5. CONGRESSIONAL DEMOCRATS REFUSED TO EXTEND 2001-2003 TAX CUTS IN FY 2008 BUDGET: “Democrats project a string of declining annual deficits leading to a $41 billion surplus by 2012 — a forecast that depends heavily on continued revenue growth and leaves open questions about the future of Bush’s tax cuts, which are due to expire after 2010.” (David Rogers, “Democrats Reach Accord On ’08 Budget,” The Wall Street Journal, 5/16/2007)

What Obama and his Democrat allies in Congress don’t seem to understand is that increasing taxes isn’t going to solve America’s debt crisis:

“Eliminating the Bush tax cuts for the highest earners, however, will only put a small dent in the projected deficit.” (Carol Lee and Damian Paletta, “Obama Puts Taxes on Table,” Wall Street Journal, 4/11/2011)

In fact, these kinds of tax increases are known to hurt the jobs creators America’s economy depends on the most – small businesses:

894,000 SMALL BUSINESSES TO SUFFER TAX HIKE UNDER OBAMA TAX PLAN.(Jonathan Karl, “Fact Checking the Tax-Cut Debate,” ABC News, 9/8/2010)

NATIONAL FEDERATION OF INDEPENDENT BUSINESSES: FIRMS OF 20 TO 250 EMPLOYEES MOST LIKELY TO BE HIT BY TAX INCREASE: “Bill Rys, tax counsel for the National Federation of Independent Business, said a survey of his organization found that the businesses most likely to be subject to the tax increase were those employing 20 to 250 workers.” (David Kocieniewski, “Tax Increase Would Hit Few Small Businesses,” The New York Times, 9/29/2010)

While Obama likes to defend his tax increases as solely targeting “the wealthy,” the reality is that his 2012 budget and his government takeover of healthcare both featured trillions of dollars of new taxes on small businesses, and he has raised taxes on the middle class before:

SMALL BUSINESS AND DEATH TAXES RISE: “Raising the top marginal income tax rate (at which a majority of small business profits face taxation) from 35% to 39.6%. This is a $709 billion/10 year tax hike. …

“Raising the death tax rate from 35% to 45% and lowering the death tax exemption amount from $5 million ($10 million for couples) to $3.5 million.  This is a $98 billion/ten year tax hike.” (“Obama’s FY2012 Budget: Taxes, Taxes, and More Taxes,” Americans for Tax Reform, 2/14/2011)

CBO: GOVERNMENT TAKEOVER OF HEALTHCARE INCREASES TAXES AND FEES BY AT LEAST $525 BILLION: “The two pieces of legislation [that make up the health care law] were estimated to increase mandatory outlays by $401 billion and raise revenues by $525 billion.” (“The Budget and Economic Outlook: An Update,” Congressional Budget Office, August 2010)

TAX INCREASES FOR THOSE MAKING UNDER $200,000: “Taxpayers earning less than $200,000 a year will pay roughly $3.9 billion more in taxes — in 2019 alone — due to healthcare reform, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation, Congress’s official scorekeeper.” (Jay Heflin, “JCT: Healthcare Law to Sock Middle Class with a $3.9 Billion Tax Increase in 2019,” The Hill, 4/12/2010)