Why is Obama obsessed with raising taxes when he said that "Raising taxes is the last thing?

He was lying then, he is lying now. If anyone actually thinks Obama or any other politician cares about anything besides how much money they can steal from us before we vote them out. I have some ocean front property in Kansas to sell to them.

And what taxes has Obama been obsessed with raising? Personal income tax rates at record low levels. Corporate tax rates at record low levels. The only tax that has even been discussed to be raised is to take back the 3% tax breaks the upper 2% of wage earners now receive from the Bush tax give aways. That's being obsessed?

IMHO Because he's a two faced corporate puppet. He won't raise taxes on the rich unless they give him permission and be damned the American people. He'll probably give more tax cuts to the uber wealthy parasites and raise taxes on the working class, oops sorry Americans have had that term stolen from their vocabularies by their political Right and its monopoly on the corporate media for decades, I mean the "middle class", and blame it on the economy while the fat cats get even fatter tightening the people's belts for them. What's happening is the ideological Right (including the Democrats on the center Right; they're not considered Left-wing anywhere but America) want working families to pay for the market bust, when it was the wealthy few who reaped the rewards of the boom as always; it's American plutocracy; same as it ever was; just bust time now; no boom to trickle on the little people below so they can delude themselves into thinking they're getting a fair share for their labours.

Actually, spending cuts is the last thing you want to do during a recession. Tax hikes are the second worst. There are places you can raise taxes and cut spending with minimal negative impact, but all else being equal, both hurt and the multiplier in spending is bigger, so it has a bigger impact. Deficit spending is what the government needs to do to create jobs. The difficult part is to cut the deficit during good economic times, rather than "giving the money back to the people" like Bush argued for in 2001, or deficit spending during good economic times. During good times, you've got to pay down the debt enough to afford the unfortunately necessary deficit spending during recessions.

What Obama should be doing is invoking the 14th amendment, which guarantees the security of the credit of the United States for any spending authorized by Congress. Congress doesn't need to pass a budget, but they cannot constitutionally stop the President from paying for a budget once they pass it. The President is authorized under the Constitution to borrow, print, or collect outstanding money in any way he needs in order to pay the debts of the United States. The constitutionality of the debt ceiling has never been questioned because Congress has never before seriously considered default, but the one time the Supreme Court considered a related question, Perry v. U.S., although they found in that case that there was not actually a default, they noted that a default is unconstitutional and Congress lacks the power to cause one.

The only way I can think of that this would get to Court is if we default and our creditors (anyone holding US bonds, whether it's the nation of China or Joe Shmoe down the street) sue to collect. I can't think of how anyone would have standing to sue for Obama exercising his executive authority under the 14th Amendment in defiance of a law passed by Congress. Nobody is harmed as an individual (being harmed as a taxpayer doesn't count in Court unless Congress makes a specific law saying otherwise). Perhaps an interest group could sue. I'm not sure.

Liberal democrats tax and spend....our ENTIRE history says this is the truth. Look where it got us. Taxing the wealthiest among us only drives the prices up for the rest of the country. Tax the rich and gas prices go up, milk we be $7 a gallon and a loaf of bread will cost $3 within 6 months.

Because, in my humble but vocal opinion, 0bama is more obsessed with spending and aiding our enemies, killing jobs and becoming a dictator than anything else, plus he is prone to lying

Taxes haven't been this low for 50 years. Obama inherited an economic crisis and now wants the rich to pay their fair share. I see no problem with his strategy.

The GOP gamesmanship with our national debt will cost them yet another election.

Raising taxes on the lower / middle class is not the same as raising taxes on the ultra rich.

They have different effects on the economy.

You seem to be missing that there are less government jobs now than prior to his election, which means government spending is "also" coming down and he has proposed even MORE cuts to it.

The assumption that welfare helps the poor also explains why so many people today reject in practice the appealing old notion of classical Liberalism that government should play no favorites: that the force of law should not be used to benefit some people at the expense of others. While they recognize and perhaps regret that welfare does involve the force of law to benefit some (those considered poor) at the expense of others (everyone else), they feel the principle is justifiably violated since welfare diminishes need. But is this assumption true? Does welfare, when all is said and done, really help solve the problem of poverty?

There is good reason to believe that it does not. What is worse, there is substantial evidence that welfare impedes progress against poverty. In our country, worst of all, welfare seems to have increased poverty. What follows is a brief summary of the thinking and evidence that lead to this surprising conclusion. We would do well to consider it seriously, for if it is true, our national antipoverty policy is doing great disservice precisely to those it is intended to help. In the words of Walter Williams, professor of economics at George Mason University, “corn-passionate policy requires dispassionate analysis” of policy effects. Analysis of welfare shows it to be a problem for poverty, not a solution.

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He says whatever is politically expedient for his agenda. You know, kinda how when W was in office, 0webammy referred to raising the debt ceiling as a "Failure oif leadership". Now, when he and his equally incompetent ilk are in charge, he fights tooth and nail to raise that debt ceiling. Hypocrisy 101.

He does not support raising "Taxes" on the Middle Class, but he does support raising the income ceiling on Social Security and Medicare which essentially is a huge increase for the self employed. That's what Democrats do. They tax small business and then promise to "help" small business.