Last night, during a taped interview with 60 Minutes, President Barack Obama told Steve Kroft: “I thought the economy would have gotten better by now. One of the things I think you understand as president is you’re held responsible for everything. But you don’t always have control of everything.” President Obama is right: presidents often do get too much of the credit and too much of the blame for the economic performance of the country. But there is one aspect of the economy that President Obama does have control over: taxes. And at a time when our nation’s unemployment still hovers around 10%, President Obama’s tax plan raises taxes by $1.8 trillion over the next 10 years.
The White House wants you to believe that only the wealthy will pay higher taxes under the President’s plan. Don’t believe them for a second. These hikes include reducing the child tax credit, re-imposing the marriage penalty, raising taxes on small businesses (the American jobs engine), raising dividend taxes (draining seniors’ incomes), raising capital gains taxes (diverting money from job-creating investments) and raising some personal tax rates.
The Heritage Foundation Center for Data Analysis has estimated the impacts of the Obama tax hikes and found they would: 1) decrease inflation-adjusted gross domestic product (GDP) by $1.1 trillion by 2020; 2) decrease business investment by $33 billion a year; 3) decrease personal savings by $38 billion in 2011 alone; 4) decrease consumer spending by $706 billion through 2020; and 5) kill an average of 693,000 jobs a year through 2020. Congress must Get to Work Stopping the Obama Tax Hikes. Specifically, Congress must:
- Block the Obama Tax Hikes. The current lower taxes must be made permanent for all individuals, businesses and investors. Government must get out of the way so the American economy can grow and create jobs.
- Permanently Eliminate the Death Tax. Congress must stick with current policy and permanently repeal the death tax once and for all.
- Eliminate the Alternative Minimum Tax. Congress has enacted temporary patches from time to time to ameliorate the impact of the AMT on a growing number of taxpayers. Congress should repeal the Alternative Minimum Tax for good.
- Repeal the Obamacare Taxes. As part of the repeal of the Obamacare statute, Congress should eliminate the Obamacare taxes, including the “surtax” on dividends and capital gains which hinders economic growth and job creation.
- Lower Corporate Income Taxes. The top U.S. corporate tax rate should be reduced to 25% to help eliminate the incentive to move businesses and jobs overseas.
According to a new Rasmussen Reports poll, 58% of likely U.S. Voters say tax increases will hurt the economy while just 18% feel increasing taxes will help our economy. Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) told Fox News Sunday yesterday: “I am not for raising taxes in a recession, especially when it comes to the job creators that we need so desperately to start creating jobs again. I am not for sending any signal to small businesses in this country that they’re going to have their tax rates go up.” Conservatives must pay close attention to what this Congress does and be prepared to hold leaders accountable. That is why The Heritage Foundation has created the Solutions for America: Get to Work checklist. Stopping the Obama Tax Hikes is just one of five tasks Congress must complete – as the BARE MINIMUM REQUIRED – to fulfill its electoral mandate. You can download and print all of the “Get to Work” fact sheets and checklist, here.
Quick Hits:
- On 60 Minutes last night, President Obama blamed a sluggish economy for heavy Democratic electoral losses.
- Also on 60 Minutes, President Obama said if we don’t pass another economic stimulus the U.S. economy could enter a “new normal” of high unemployment.
- The high cost of alternative energy is making new projects tough to sell.
- Texas is considering dropping out of Medicaid.
- You can listen to Heritage experts James Carafano, Brian Riedl, Curtis Dubay, David Azerrad and Nina Owcharenko discuss Heritage’s new Checklist for the incoming Congress, here. Subscribe to Heritage podcasts, here.
