by Sam Stein and Jennifer Bendery
Huffington Post
Posted: 11/13/2012 5:03 pm EST
Updated: 11/13/2012 5:19 pm EST
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama will enter high-stakes budget negotiations firmly committed to seeing the tax rates for high-income earners rise to pre-George W. Bush levels, he assured a gathering of progressive and labor leaders on Tuesday.
“I am not going to budge,” he told the group, according to an attendee who relayed material from the meeting on condition of anonymity. “I said in 2010 that I’m going to do this once, and I meant it.”
The White House did not immediately return a request for comment, but two other sources who attended the meeting confirmed the quote. The administration seems to have staked out a firmer position than during the first stand-off over the Bush-era tax cuts, in November and December of 2010, leaving the impression that it won’t sign off on a compromise that doesn’t increase the tax burden on the wealthy as a means of paying down the deficit.
How the president plans to effect that outcome is still unclear. Top Democrats in the Senate have said they would be comfortable letting all the tax rates expire — as they are scheduled to do — at the end of the year, after which they will put together a tax cut bill that would re-establish the Bush-era rates for incomes below $250,000.
Several sources at the meeting said the president was, as one noted, “more nuanced than going off the cliff.” Obama hopes to place “maximum pressure on House Republicans so at the end of the day he may be able to budge them,” the source added.
“It seemed like he meant it,” the first source said. “That suggests that they are ready to go over the ledge.”
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Its not the millionaires that are the problem or anybody making over 250 grand. Obama is a puppet of the billionaires and you know damn well they aren’t going to pay any more taxes. Its their money. Who are they going to pay taxes to? Themselves???
I was raised a Republican. In a family of good Republicans. It took me nearly 20 years to see that most of what they say… is but a manipulation of the truth.
I despise big Government. It represents the opposite of Freedom to me. Every new program, new legislative act, new office, new Dept.of Ineptness … is yet another nail in the coffin… of the great country that we once were.
But, I can see clearly now… that what the Republicans have actually been up to… behind the scenes… beneath the moral highground that they so often preach to us from…. has been even more damaging to our future and our Freedoms… than any of the debauchery that the Liberals have inflicted upon us.
Edwin, I, too, was raised in a good Republican family! When I started, however, to do my own thinking, I knew I didn’t fit in that camp at all. As I grew much older, I left both parties, and simply have voted for whomever I thought was the best man for the job. Soon, I believe there will be no more parties, because they are all a part of Duality. . . Hugs, ~Jean
I have always been an Independent up until this time….I became a RINO to support Dr. Paul….however I wish he would have run as an Independent seeing how the Gestapo Party treated him! I so wish he could be our PREZ!
Hold firm O. WE stand with you.
There is no logical reason why the elite should be favored by paying less taxes. When you come right down to it THEY ARE PARASITES! They live off the labor of other people, whom they consider slaves. They are an arrogant lot of spoiled, selfish, mean-natured children, who grew up to be psychopaths.
Why should the elite be allowed to run a government that sets laws for everyone else, but which they, themselves are always above. It’s insane. It’s time to set our collective feet down and say like Gandalf in the mines of Moria “YOU SHALL NOT PASS!”
Roberto,
I agree with you concerning Elites. However, be careful who you through into the pile labeled elites. Very very few are in the “elite” category. We don’t need to point a finger at people who are earning a comfortable living and take what they have. Households earning 300k-400k per year are comfortable and capable as we all should have access to this type of lifestyle if we are willing to work. The problem is the “elite” that earn hundreds of millions a year increase their shares to billions. The 300k-400k pool is getting smaller and more and more of us sink to poverty levels. 50k a year is damn near poverty for a family these days. Think about it. Would love to hear your thoughts as I would rather see you pushed into a more comfortable lifestyle able to achieve more thn drop those just above down a little. It is the empires and controllers that have hoarded the resources and betrayed us. Not those who live with a comfortable income that allows security, a good education and access to healthy foods, and healthcare.
Alex,
I’m not talking about honest working people who through their own industry are making 300-400k, even some of the millionaires have made their money honestly without screwing everyone around them. I support people making a good living and being comfortable, owning their own homes, and being able to educate their children. These people contribute, they’re not just takers like the other crowd.
It’s the billionaires, who are morally corrupt, who are the satanists, and pedophiles, and power hungry psychopaths who have gone way beyond mere narcissism, and who contribute nothing to the world around them. They are parasites. They have divorced themselves from the rest of humanity.
This type of being can look right at groups of homeless, starving children and sit down and figure out how they can throw more people into the street and murder innocents in order to steal their commodities. They thrive on cruelty, war, drugs, mass suffering. When they connive, lie, cheat, steal and murder their way into positions of power, which they seem to have a proclivity for doing then we get the situation our planet and our people are in today. The worst is they want to freeze the people out of ascending into the next higher dimension where none of this crap exists and keep mankind trapped in the third dimension as their slaves.
See Daniel’s exposures on soldierhugs.com – it’s the more comprehensive explanation on their agenda.
And bless you brother!
Roberto