Tax breaks for the wealthy, corporate jet owners, hedge fund managers and oil and gas companies should be scrapped to help reduce the deficit, President Barack Obama said Wednesday. Republicans are insisting that tax increases stay off the table in ongoing talks to get a deal to raise the debt ceiling. But at a news conference Obama said revenue has to be in the mix. [MarketWatch]
deficit
Obama Wants Hedge Fund Managers And ‘Corporate Jet Owners’ To Do Their Part To Help Bring Down The Deficit
By Bess LevinThe following post is by Dealbreaker reader and commenter Infinite Guest.
This is the worst time in decades to try to reduce the deficit. Unemployment is immorally high, growth remains anemic, private deleveraging shows no signs of abatement, infrastructure is rapidly deteriorating and the prospect of a stagflationary double-dip recession is all too imminent. Yet the drum beat for deficit reduction is deafening, with everyone from Standard & Poor’s to the Committee for Economic Development to the AFL-CIO keeping time, and the rest of the world joining in, marching for a cure to our ailing fiscal health. But if Dr. Dominique Strauss-Kahn prescribes it, and Dr. Zhou Xiaohuan concurs, then it’s snake oil. Don’t drink it. Continue reading »
The U.S. is the only large AAA-rated country that saw its debt rise during the crisis that until recently had no plan that would reverse the trend, said Steven Hess, senior credit officer at Moody’s. Budget cuts would mean the U.S. wouldn’t likely sell as much debt, which has grown to $9.13 trillion in marketable Treasuries from $4.34 billion in mid-2007 as the government boosted spending to pull the economy out of recession. “It seems both sides of this debate are now targeting lower debt and lower deficits,” said Hess, based on the president’s speech today. “We do see this as a turning point in terms of the debate. We would view that as a positive, but we’ll have to wait to see the outcome.” [Bloomberg]
The federal deficit has ballooned by more than $1 trillion dollars this year. This does not make Tim Geithner very happy, but it also doesn’t worry him much, because spending more than we make is at best his third most-pressing priority. And don’t even get him started on taxes, because the tax-evader-in-chief is loathe to even use the word.
But fear not. The T.S. is ready to make some hard choices. Eventually. Maybe.
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