Tax Cuts

President Obama officially launched his re-election campaign with public rallies in Columbus, Ohio, and Richmond, Virginia, on Saturday.With that launch came a re-tooled stump speech which both defended his record in office and laid out the contrast with Republican nominee Mitt Romney. The speeches in both cities were largely the same. Here's a full transcript of his remarks in Columbus, following the acknowledgement of local leaders. OBAMA: "I want to thank so many of our Neighborhood Team Leaders for being here today.  You guys will be the backbone of this campaign.  And I want the rest of you to join a team or become a leader yourself, because we are going to win this thing the old-fashioned way -- door by door, block by block, neighborhood by neighborhood.

Stephanie Nordlinger, who lives in a modest Baldwin Hills tract home, has been reading with interest the news stories about computer magnate Michael Dell and his low, low property taxes. Last week, the Times reported that Dell has saved more than a million dollars a year in taxes on a landmark Santa Monica hotel by exploiting a gaping legal loophole in the rules that govern how Proposition 13 is applied. By bringing his wife and two investment advisors into the 2006 deal for the Fairmont Miramar Hotel, my colleagues Jason Felch and Jack Dolan reported, Dell has so far been able to keep his taxes based on the hotel's 1999 assessed value of $86 million, rather than the $200 million he paid.

Over the first 18 months of his presidency, Barack Obama cut taxes ? 25 different taxes, in fact ? for 95% of taxpayers. Yet when queried by pollsters on whether the president had "increased taxes for most Americans, decreased taxes for most Americans, or ? kept taxes the same," 44% of respondents said taxes went up, while 46% said taxes did not change. Now the president is making the same mistake again: cutting taxes in a way almost no one will notice and some may remember as a tax increase.

In the debate over who should be the next mayor of Los Angeles, who would you suppose argues for elimination of a business tax to kick-start economic growth? Not the one-time investment banker who dropped out of the race early and says killing the business tax would leave a huge hole in the city treasury. Not the lone Republican in the field, who wants more modest business tax reform. Not a City Council fiscal hawk, also a candidate for mayor, who says cutting the tax could leave the city with a $400-million shortfall.

Republicans and Democrats have kicked up so much rhetorical dust as they tussle over the economy, it's often hard to discern exactly they're fighting over. Such is the case with the soon-to-expire tax cuts enacted during President George W. Bush's first term. Some of the news coverage has implied that President Obama's plan would force some small businesses to pay half of their income in federal and state taxes. Meanwhile, the Democrats have made it sound as if ending the tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans is vital to closing the $1.3 trillion federal budget deficit.

President Obama on Friday signed the bill that extends the George W. Bush-era tax cuts, while Congress moved to wind up its lame-duck deliberations in a session marked by the changing nature of politics and power. Speaking at the signing ceremony, Obama again defended his compromise, worked out with Republicans. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) was prominent at the ceremony, as was Vice President Joe Biden, who bargained with the Republican leader "This is real money that is going to make a real difference in peoples' lives," Obama said.

The tax cuts signed into law by President George W. Bushare set to expire at the end of December, and the resulting increase in tax bills could be large enough to stall the already struggling economy. On Monday, President Obama called on Congress to renew the reductions for one year, but just for low- and middle-income Americans, not for individuals with taxable incomes above $200,000 or couples with incomes above $250,000. Given that there's virtually no chance of Congress acting on taxes before the November elections, Obama's announcement was a political gesture aimed at focusing the debate on the rates paid by the wealthy.

Republican leaders in Congress on Monday backed away from a possible compromise with the Obama administration over expiring George W. Bush-era tax cuts, committing both sides to an election-year battle with significant stakes for the economy. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and the party's conservative activists distanced themselves from comments by House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R- Ohio) on Sunday that he may agree to let tax relief for wealthy Americans expire if that was politically necessary to save middle-class tax cuts.

Less than 24 hours after a very public show of Obama-Clinton unity , former President Clinton appeared to break from the White House strategy for dealing with the soon-to-expire Bush-era tax cuts. Speaking on CNBC on Tuesday, Clinton suggested that the tax cuts should be extended temporarily as the country struggles under the weak economy, which he described as a “recession.” “They will probably have to put everything off until early next year. That's probably the best thing to do right now,” Clinton said.

President Obama was in a holiday mood on Tuesday, urging members of Congress not to "be a Grinch" by refusing to continue tax cuts that mean $1,000 a year for the average family. The payroll tax cuts are set to expire at the end of the year, but Democrats plan to bring the president's proposal for another vote next week. "In the spirit of Thanksgiving, we are going to give them another chance," Obama told a crowd in Manchester, N.H. Lawmakers are heading home this week for the Thanksgiving break but Obama hit the campaign trail Tuesday, portraying the GOP refusal to extend the payroll tax cuts as the same as actively voting to raise taxes.

WASHINGTON - When it comes to the nation's debt, payback time might be here. Years of low tax rates and rising federal spending, amplified by the devastating economic effect of the Great Recession, have driven the U.S. borrowing tab to more than $16 trillion from less than $1 trillion in 1981. Deficit reduction has become the dominant issue in Washington. The first major tax increase since 1993 took place last month. And large automatic spending cuts - $1.2 trillion over the next decade - are set to kick in Friday.

Who says congressional Democrats aren't trying to cut spending? Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) seems determined to chop discretionary budgets by more than $100 billion this year, regardless of what economists (and the unemployment rate) may suggest about the fragility of the recovery. Granted, it's not that Reid is calling for the cuts to go into effect on March 1, as currently scheduled. In fact, he says the opposite. But the alternatives that Reid and House Democrats are floating are such political nonstarters, it's hard to imagine anything else happening.

Twenty-six years ago, I walked into the U.S. Capitol as a newly elected congressman, representing a district that stretched from Simi Valley to Gorman to Catalina Island. This month, I cast my last vote in Congress, joining 84 other Republicans and 172 Democrats to pass the "fiscal cliff" legislation. Being a member of Congress -- and representing the needs of 700,000 people back home -- is both an honor and responsibility. You are always aware that people around the world are watching Earth's largest democracy, with some cheering it on and some hoping it will fail.

Robert Briones weathered the downturn in the economy well, working more than he needed, going on a vacation to Norway with his family and eating out at lunch from time to time. But even the 48-year-old psychologist can't escape the latest blow to consumers' finances: a tax increase that will affect an estimated 160 million workers. As part of the deal on the so-called fiscal cliff, Congress extended tax breaks for middle-income families but did not extend a payroll tax cut that was set to expire this year.

Not to sound Panglossian, but all things considered, this whole "fiscal cliff" exercise hasn't been such a bad thing. I'm not saying it's been good for the economy or the public's faith in government. It's had the opposite effect, and things may get considerably worse on both fronts before the episode is done. I'm just saying it's been a less disruptive fight than the previous go-arounds -- or, potentially, the one to come. The underlying problem is a deep ideological split between Democrats and Republicans over the size and role of the federal government.

WASHINGTON -- In the aftermath of House Speaker John A. Boehner's defeat on his “Plan B” tax plan, President Obama offered a scaled-down, stopgap budget proposal Friday afternoon designed to avert tax increases and spending cuts due to take effect next month. Obama's latest proposal would raise taxes on wealthier Americans, extend jobless benefits for 2 million Americans and lay unspecified groundwork “for further work on both growth and deficit reduction.” Before leaving for his home state of Hawaii for a short Christmas vacation, the president spoke with Boehner on the telephone and met with Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada.

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. -- Previewing the message that he will bring Tuesday to the swing state of Colorado, Mitt Romney told a conservative talk-radio host that President Obama's tax cut extension proposal would “kill jobs” and harm the middle class. “What the president is proposing is therefore a massive tax increase on job creators and on small business,” the unofficial Republican presidential nominee told Virginia-based conservative radio host John Fredericks in a taped interview that will air Tuesday.

House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) is unusually concise for a politician, but the statement he made in front of the TV cameras Wednesday afternoon was terse even by his standards. He spent less than a minute telling reporters that President Obama's latest deficit-reduction offer was neither "balanced" nor "serious. " He then predicted that the House would pass a bill Thursday containing one part of the Republicans' fiscal plan: making permanent the Bush-era tax cuts for those earning less than $1 million a year.

Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid (R-Nev.) reacted harshly Tuesday to House Speaker John A. Boehner's “Plan B” contingency measure to preserve tax cuts for a majority of Americans, but the proposal gained matter-of-fact acceptance by Republican leaders in the Senate. Boehner's plan would raise taxes on Americans earning more than $1 million a year, leaving the remaining rates untouched. It sits far above the $250,000 threshold originally set by Senate Democrats and the $400,000 recently proposed by President Obama in his negotiations with the Ohio Republican.