GASP – election promise fulfilled!

I wanted to post an article from www.fivethirtyeight.com. It’s well worth reading, as COngressional Republicans and conservative commentators scream about Obama’s budget that was released yesterday, in which the new administration did exactly what they said they were going to do during last year’s presidential campaign… namely, raise taxeds on households making $250,000 annually, and cut taxes on approximately 95% of taxpayers. The sort of philosophy which, by the way, enough Americans agreed with that they went and elected Obama president.

And if you don’t regularly read fivethirtyeight.com, check it out.  High quality.

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BREAKING: Press Corps Incredulous That Obama Budget Reflects Campaign Promises

It felt like a primal whine from rich reporters. Hasn’t Barack Obama considered that maybe John McCain’s tax policy is the right one? Does Obama not realize that the best way to be a Democrat is preserve conservative Republican tax policy?

Why would Obama raise taxes on people making over $250,000 beginning in two years? If you tamper with trickle-down, the dramatic shift of income toward the wealthy that was the hallmark of George W. Bush’s tax policy, don’t you know it’ll be disaster? It’ll be “class warfare!” (The first questioner: Are you worried that the “class warfare” argument could sink the budget?)

In a remarkable scene, Gibbs patiently and repeatedly explained that, no really, Obama actually won the election, that he’d explained exactly what he was going to do during the campaign, the American people understood and voted on it, and now he’s doing it. During the campaign, Obama had pledged to cut taxes for 95% of American workers and end the catastrophic non-workingness of George Bush’s trickle-down tax policy. Now, among some questioners, there seems to be confusion and alarm that Obama intends to implement that policy.

I actually sort of remember this coming up during the campaign. Those making more than $250,000 will be asked to give a little back, give up the Bush income tax cuts and go back to the marginal tax rates during the Clinton years when the economy was strong and the rising tide lifted all boats.

There were many questions that seemed quizzical about Obama’s budget proposal following in line with his campaign rhetoric, but this exchange between Gibbs and CBS’ Chip Reid is illustrative:

Reid: On jobs, which is the big complaint up on Capitol Hill right now from Republicans, that this plan is a job-killer. I mean, the $787 billion plan was all about jobs, more than anything else. And now you have a plan in place that — how can you possibly tax people making people over $250,000 something like $667 billion over the next ten years and not have a downward effect on jobs?

Gibbs: Well, Chip, how did it work in 1994 and 1995 and 1996 and 1997?

(CONTINUED OVER AT FIVETHIRTYEIGHT…)

~ by Aaron Saylor on February 28, 2009.