<$250,000 a year = middle class????????
- Joined: Nov 16th, 2007
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http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/reuters/090803/us/politics_us_obama_taxes
No tax hike for middle class: White House
Mon Aug 3, 3:36 PM
By Jeff Mason
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama will keep his promise not to raise taxes on people making less than $250,000 a year, the White House said Monday, rebutting comments by administration officials that indicated otherwise.
"The president has made a very clear commitment to not raise taxes on middle-class families," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told a regular briefing.
"Let me be precise. The president's clear commitment is not to raise taxes on those making less than $250,000 a year," he said.
Obama's top economic advisers left the door open to such a tax increase over the weekend with comments that seemed to contradict the tax pledges Obama made on the 2008 presidential campaign trail.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner Sunday declined to rule out a tax hike as a way to help slash record deficits and White House economic adviser Lawrence Summers, while reiterating Obama's intent not to penalize the middle class, said "it's never a good idea to absolutely rule things out."
But Summers said later in Sunday's morning television news shows that Geithner was not laying the groundwork for tax increases, and added that none of the White House proposals would burden the middle class.
Gibbs said Obama's position on the issue had not changed.
"I think the president has been clear on this. The first thing that we can do -- the most important thing that we can do right now is get our economy growing again," he said.
"We're going to have to make some decisions down the road on some of the president's legislative priorities and some of the things that Congress wants to do, to evaluate how we move back toward -- on a path toward fiscal sustainability."
The White House also repeated its prediction that job losses in the U.S. economy would continue to mount, and Gibbs said that fact would be reflected in unemployment figures set to be released Friday.
"I don't think there's anybody that doesn't believe that we're going to see several hundred thousand more jobs lost in this economy," Gibbs said, adding that unless something unforeseen occurred, Friday's report would show the unemployment rate ticking up.
Even with positive economic news last week that second quarter GDP contracted only at a modest rate, the White House has warned that ending the flow of job losses would take time.
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wefrucar
Re: <$250,000 a year = middle class????????
laowai all have so much money!
Sometimes I feel it is maybe unbearable always be traditional Chinese girl.
Aspicer
Re: <$250,000 a year = middle class????????
That distinctly covers the lower class, and probably a portion of the middle class. Guess it depends on your definition of middle class... nice and ambiguous like any political terminology.
bobby_liu
Re: <$250,000 a year = middle class????????
smart comment
ConfuciusMan88
Re: <$250,000 a year = middle class????????
its not really ambiguous political terminology when he says to let him be more specific, people with less than 250k/year. I would say that pretty exact, wouldnt you?
He who hangs from bonsai, unhung.
Aspicer
Re: <$250,000 a year = middle class????????
Nope.
The figure 250,000, while exact, was released a few days ago to clarify what the administration meant by the "middle class"...thus the discussion.
The discussion of taxing the "middle class" began well before this (see: campaign promises).
ConfuciusMan88
Re: <$250,000 a year = middle class????????
middle class has been considered 250k for a long long time. what 1993? ...Clinton tax plan... I can remember that from years ago, but just checked a NYTIMEs article for the year. I think it is interesting though how they determine what middle class is.... then, it was thought to top out at 250k and 1 mil in assets... is it the mean? the median? actually, i guess it is the middle three fifths, and that was on the top of the fourth fifth, but that was just one article so take it with a grain of salt. Oh yea, but point being it wasnt released a few days ago, we were reminded a few days ago.
He who hangs from bonsai, unhung.
busyman66204
Re: <$250,000 a year = middle class????????
Most Americans consider 30,000-60,000 middle class.
Also most of the people who donate to politicians earn more than 60,000 and if Obama taxed those people, they would not give him money, so, he CALLS those people Middle class, does not tax them, and collects heavily.
International Todd!
rreeff
Re: <$250,000 a year = middle class????????
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