President Obama: Please Call Home

NRCC - Just when it seemed like Democrats were planning on borrowing more money from countries like China to pay for their latest stimulus spending spree, President Obama announced this week that he’d like to pay for it with more than $400 billion in tax hikes:

PRICETAG FOR SON OF STIMULUS: $450 BILLION. “It’s fairly clear what the plan would cost. Though the price tag has not yet been officially tabulated by the Congressional Budget Office, private economists have come up with back-of-the-envelope estimates of about $450 billion.” (John Schoen, “Obama Plan to Pay for Jobs Program Murky,” MSNBC, 9/12/2011)

BUT “THE NUMBERS JUST DON’T ADD UP” IN OBAMA’S PLAN TO PAY FOR IT: “In making his pitch for a comprehensive jobs package Monday, President Barack Obama has been assuring lawmakers and voters that the plan 'won’t add a dime to the deficit.'

“At best, it’s a promise he can’t make. At worst, the numbers just don’t add up.” (John Schoen, “Obama Plan to Pay for Jobs Program Murky,” MSNBC, 9/12/2011)

SO OBAMA OFFERS $467 BILLION IN TAX INCREASES: “The Obama administration is asking Congress to raise taxes by $467 billion over 10 years to pay for the President’s one-year $447 billion stimulus, which he announced during a speech Thursday before a joint session of Congress.” (Neil Munro, “Obama Asks Congress for $467-Billion Tax Increase to Fund Jobs Plan,” The Daily Caller, 9/12/2011)

RESURRECTING THE FAILED TAX INCREASES OF THE PAST: “President Barack Obama’s budget proposal resurrects a series of tax increases on certain corporations and the wealthy that were largely ignored by Congress when Democrats controlled both chambers. … Many of the tax increases were in the president’s previous budget proposals, offered when Obama could expect a more friendly reception from Congress. Lawmakers from both political parties, however, have been wary of limiting the ability of high earners to deduct charitable contributions out of concern it will hurt non-profit organizations.” (Meta Pettus, “Obama’s Budget Resurrects Reject Tax Increases,” The Associated Press, 2/14/2011)

It’s not the first time Democrats have tried to raise taxes in the last two years and we fear it won’t be the last. For example, the Democrats’ government takeover of healthcare already raised taxes by $570 billion, despite a bad economy that their policies have made worse:

OBAMA TRIED AND FAILED TO RAISE TAXES ON FAMILIES AND JOB CREATORS IN DEBT CEILING DEAL: “In a meeting with House Democrats on Thursday, President Obama stressed that his administration would draw a firm line on taxes and revenues both in the deficit- and debt-reduction debates and in the buildup to the 2012 elections.” (Sam Stein, “Obama Won't Extend Bush Tax Cuts Again: Pledge To House Dems,” The Huffington Post, 6/2/2011)

GEITHNER PUSHED FOR $1 TRILLION TAX HIKES: “Several sources present at the meeting with Geithner said he called for tax hikes to equal $1 trillion...” (Jake Sherman & Marin Cogan, “Frosh Leave Geithner Talk Frustrated,” Politico, 6/2/2011)

PELOSI AND HOYER: WE WANT TAX HIKES. “[Multiple Democrats] said that taxes were ‘on the table’ in the debt negotiations.

“ ‘…[W]e must have revenue raising,’ said House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) after the White House event.

“Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who opposed renewing the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy in December, also said raising taxes you should be part of a deal. ‘Creating jobs and growth will be one way to reduce the deficit, again putting revenue on the table is another way to reduce the deficit…,’ Rep. Pelosi said.” (Abby Phillip, “Dems Press Obama on Medicare,” Politico, 6/2/2011)

OBAMA’S APRIL BUDGET REDO CALLED FOR NEW TAX HIKES: “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… [T]he 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)

FY 2012 OBAMA 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)

FY 2011 OBAMA PROPOSAL 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...” (Jonathan Weisman, “Wealthy Face Tax Increase,” The Wall Street Journal, 1/31/2010)

FY 2010 OBAMA BUDGET INCLUDED A 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)

GOVERNMENT TAKEOVER OF HEALTHCARE RAISED TAXES BY $570 BILLION: “New, Expensive Taxes: New taxes mean less money being re-invested into the business, into employees and into growing and expanding. Small businesses already pay 66 percent more in tax compliance than larger businesses. This law levies $570 billion in new taxes…” (“Small Business Looks to the New Congress to Repeal the Healthcare Law,” National Federation of Independent Business, Accessed 3/21/2011)

Even as Democrats continue pushing for tax increases nationwide, in Obama’s home state of Illinois, the job-destroying effects of tax increases are on full display. Illinois Democrats passed a 66 percent tax increase in early January of this year. Since that point, job-creation in the state has turned sharply south and the state has lost more than 100,000 jobs:

“ILLINOIS LAWMAKERS PASS 66 PERCENT INCOME TAX INCREASE” IN EARLY JAN. 2011: “Democrats in the Illinois Legislature on Wednesday approved a 66 percent income-tax increase in a desperate and politically risky effort to end the state's crippling budget crisis.” (“Illinois Lawmakers Pass 66 Percent Income Tax Increase,” Associated Press, 1/12/2011)

DEMOCRAT TAX PLAN INCREASED IL BUSINESS TAXES BY 45%: (Douglas Belkin, Lauren Etter and Ilan Brat, “Illinois Braces for Tax Increases,” The Wall Street Journal, 1/13/2011)

105,423 JOBS LOST IN IL BETWEEN JAN. AND AUG. 2011: (“Local Area Unemployment Statistics,” Bureau of Labor Statistics, 9/16/2011)

JOB GROWTH HAD BEEN SLOWLY CLIMBING UNTIL JAN. 2011: (“Local Area Unemployment Statistics,” Bureau of Labor Statistics, 9/16/2011)

(“As Seen on Drudge: Illinois Loses Most Jobs in Nation,” Illinois Policy Institute, 8/24/2011)

Even some prominent Democrat economists say such tax increases would be highly damaging to economic growth—not to mention President Obama’s own admission that it’s a bad idea to raise taxes during a bad economy:

FMR WHITE HOUSE ECONOMIST CHRISTINA ROMER: TAX INCREASES HAVE A “HIGHLY SIGNIFICANT NEGATIVE IMPACT”: “[T]ax increases appear to have a very large, sustained, and highly significant negative impact on output. Since most of our exogenous tax changes are in fact reductions, the more intuitive way to express this result is that tax cuts have very large and persistent positive output effects… Our baseline specification implies that an exogenous tax increase of one percent of GDP lowers real GDP by almost three percent.” (Christina D. Romer and David H. Romer, “The Macroeconomic Effects of Tax Changes: Estimates Based on a New Measure of Fiscal Shocks,” American Economic Review, June 2010)

DEMOCRAT ECONOMIST ZANDI SAID ECONOMY WAS “TOO FRAGILE” FOR TAX INCREASES LAST JULY AND THINGS HAVEN’T GOTTEN MUCH BETTER: “I would not allow those tax increases to take hold on January 1st…I think economy's still too fragile for that.” (Remarks from Mark Zandi, PBS News Hour, 7/30/2010)

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