Free Republic

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is launching a push to extend tax cuts for the middle class, as he seeks to shift the election-year economic debate from the dismal jobs market to assertions that Republican rival Mitt Romney protects the rich. Obama, in an address from the White House later Monday, will call on Congress to pass a one-year extension of tax cuts for households making less than $250,000 a year, said senior campaign adviser Robert Gibbs. The president's appeal to middle-class voters is aimed at drawing a contrast with Romney and congressional Republicans. The House GOP is expected...

One fact in Bill Voegeli’s long post here the other day about the significance of the Ryan plan deserves dilating for a moment. Bill picks on E. J. Dionne (admittedly an easy target) for saying the alternative to Ryan is to let the Bush tax cuts expire, which will raise $3.9 trillion by the year 2020 — which approaches the neighborhood of the Ryan spending cuts. Oh, how the Left hates-hates-hates the Bush tax cuts, even more than Bush’s swagger and the Iraq War. While most liberals always call them “TheBushTaxCutsForTheRich” (one word), Bill notes that of the prospective $3.9...

One of President Obama's top economic advisers, and a former Federal Reserve Chairman - Paul Volcker - is reportedly proposing that the President consider a "Value Added Tax" (VAT) be imposed on the United States public. This is a hidden sales tax that would be imposed on all purchases. It is a huge revenue raiser, that takes money "right out of middle America," according to Stuart Varney. Volcker is reportedly also close to recommending an energy tax as well. The VAT is very popular across Europe. It is estimated that for every 1% of a VAT, it will bring in...

Sometimes, the truth hurts. In the case of an article they published yesterday at 4:04 p.m. Eastern, it appears Reuters editors were afraid writer Terri Cullen's adventure into truthful journalism might hurt their news agency's relationship with President Barack Obama -- so they pulled it.

Comments Reuters columnist James Pethokoukis: "Obama's campaign promise to not raise taxes on households making less than $250,000 a year was always considered a joke here inside the Beltway. Maybe it was a joke inside the campaign, too." President Obama is very serious about keeping to the letter of his pledge not to raise taxes for people who make less than $250,000, so he has fond the perfect way to ensure the implementation of his pledge, semantics. If he calls those taxes something else, its not a tax, after all he is the POTUS, he can do anything he wants...