He's not triangulating, moderating, tacking to the center, or acknowledging the voters' verdict on November 4th in overwhelmingly putting the GOP in charge of Congress, folks. No, he's being "the president he always wanted to be," and you and I are going to be forced to pick up that tab:
Barack Obama's $4 trillion budget has unveiled ten major tax hikes to pay for a range of new spending on education and infrastructure, setting White House on a crash course with Republicans just weeks into the new Congress.
Not really. His budget isn't a request to Congress, it's telling Congress what he's going to impose via Executive Orders. What's amusing is his returning to "infrastructure" spending - roads, bridges, ports, etc. - like a dog to its own vomit when all the "infrastructure" spending from six years ago - remember the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act? Anybody? Buehler? Buehler? - never actually structured any "infra" because his environmental extremist allies blocked it all - remember "I guess all those 'shovel-ready' projects weren't all that 'shovel-ready'"? Other than in the sense that when he was selling it, he was most definitely shoveling with both hands.
At any rate, I doubt that the "infrastructure" spending of which he's dreaming bears much, if any, resemblance to that enumerated in Article I, Section 8, Clause 17.
According to Politico, Obama also plans to use the hikes to fund middle class tax cuts.
The following is a list of the ten biggest tax hikes:
1. The "Buffett" tax: a reference to billionaire investor Warren Buffett's complaint that he pays a lower tax rate than his secretary: The White House proposes that millionaires pay a minimum tax rate of 30%, which would raise $35 billion.
So let Warren Buffett pay on behalf of all the millionaires that do not feel similarly inclined.
2. Limits to Itemized Deductions for the Wealthy: Obama intends to limit the value of itemized deductions used by the wealthy, such as mortgage interests, to 28% of their income, raising an estimated $640 billion.
I.e. Only those that don't need to itemize deductions will be allowed to do so.
3. and 4. Capital Gains/Second Death Duty: Obama wants to increase the top rate of the capital gains tax to 28% from its current rate of about 25% (with [ObamaCare] surcharges), and expand the categories subject to it, especially those passed from one generation to the next....
Because there's just too much capital floating around out there funding too many business start-ups and too much job-creation.
5. "Mitt Romney" loophole: The administration's plan is to target those who amass large sums in their retirement accounts. It would prevent contributions to tax-preferred accounts once a balance of $3.4 million is reached, which provides an estimated annual income of $210,000. This hike is estimated to raise $26 billion.
The One gets to define how big a nest egg is "enough". Which will, of course, not apply to his own or those of his allies, cronies, butt-buddies, and hangers-on.
6. & 7. Taxes on Multinational Companies: Obama expanded his plan to revamp business taxes this year to include a new system of taxes for multinational companies with overseas profits, according to Politico. In addition to the proposals to cut the top corporate tax rate from 35% to 28%, Obama would put a new 19% minimum tax on global profit.
The intent is to push companies to repatriate cash instead of stockpiling it overseas, and with the introduction of the new system will come a one-time mandatory 14% tax on current offshore profits, Politico reported.
That's not a reduction in the corporate tax rate, it's applying it to earnings to which it isn't logically or legally applicable. Or the Obamunist idea of "broadening the base".
The one-time repatriation tax is estimated to raise $268 billion. The 19% rate on global profits is expected to raise about $206 billion.
Can we just agree that these revenue-raising estimates are all crap, because they're based upon static rather than dynamic assumptions? Corporations will find ways around these attacks. It's just that those ways will further desiccate job-creation by moving even more capital overseas from this viciously hostile anti-business environment.
8. Bank tax: Obama proposes to impose a 7 basis point fee on the nation's 100 largest banks, with the intent of forcing them to consider their levels of borrowing more closely. That hike would raise $112 billion.
Naked wealth and capital confiscation.
9. Tobacco tax: The Obama administration intends to nearly double the taxes on cigarettes and small cigars to about $1.95 per pack, an increase from $1.01 per pack, and the tax would be linked to inflation. The hikes would fund an extension of the Children's Health Insurance Program that would otherwise expire without new funding, and would also fund Obama's proposals to guarantee universal access to preschool. This new tax is expected to raise $95 billion, according to Politico.
Bet that won't apply to imported Cuban cigars and choom, though.
10. "Gingrich-Edwards" loophole: Another proposal would revive a plan that prevents people from setting up pass-through businesses to avoid paying payroll taxes including Social Security and Medicare. The loophole got is name after tax returns revealed that former presidential candidates Newt Gingrich and John Edwards had used this arrangement.
Again, there'll always be more such loopholes where that one came from.
All told, O's promised tax increases add up to over $2 trillion, while even his fantasy "waste, fraud, and abuse"-driven reductions total a big, fat $14 billion, or approximately 140 times less.
If you want to be optimistic about it, you can dub this "proposal" a huge White House in-kind contribution to the Elizabeth Warren 2016 campaign. The question is whether congressional Republicans will get lured into moving O's budget front-and-center by conspicuously panning it, or if they instead simply ignore it as the "unserious plan for America's fiscal future" in House Speaker John Boehner's words that it is, and proceed with their own 2016 table-setting for Governor Walker.
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