Obama adviser says tax cuts will happen

Monday 29th December, 05:52 AM JST

WASHINGTON —

A top adviser to President-elect Barack Obama on Sunday defended plans for a conservative, anti-gay rights preacher to deliver the inaugural invocation while promising that campaign pledges for middle-class tax cuts will be kept. David Axelrod also assured that Bush administration tax cuts for the wealthy will be revoked or allowed to expire.

Axelrod declined to comment on Israel’s offensive against the Islamic militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip, saying Obama was in contact with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and President George W Bush about the crisis. More than 290 Palestinians have died in the first two days of the air campaign against Gaza rocket squads and Hamas members.

But, he said, “President Bush speaks for the United States until Jan 20 and we’re going to honor that.”

Axelrod acknowledged that the United States has had a “special relationship” with Israel, calling it an “important bond, an important relationship.”

Obama’s “going to work closely with the Israelis. They’re a great ally of ours, the most important ally in the region,” Axelrod said. “And that is a fundamental principle from which he’ll work. But he will do so in a way that will promote the cause of peace, and work closely with the Israelis and the Palestinians on that.”

Obama is receiving regular security briefings during his Hawaii holiday with his wife and two daughters. On Sunday morning he again traveled to a Marine Corps base near his vacation home for an hourlong workout.

Obama and his friends from Chicago—Eric Whitaker and Martin Nesbitt—went to the Semper Fit gym on Marine Corps Base Hawaii’s compound Sunday morning. The president-elect did not speak to reporters but made small talk with members of the public, as he has done every day since arriving on Dec 20.

The Obamas are spending 12 days in Obama’s native state. The next president has no public schedule through the New Year.

With 23 days remaining until Obama takes office in the midst of the deepest economic downturn in decades as the country is still fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Obama senior adviser Axelrod said the incoming president’s invitation to the Rev. Rick Warren was important because it underlined the inclusiveness he wants to institute in his administration.

“The important point here is you have a conservative evangelical pastor coming to take part in the inauguration of a progressive president,” Axelrod said of Warren, a prominent preacher who backed a recent ballot measure banning same-sex marriage in his home state of California.

Warren has compared gay marriage to legitimizing incest, child abuse, and polygamy. That stance has sparked outrage among gays and the president-elect’s liberal backers.

At the same time, Warren has battled complaints from fellow evangelicals that he isn’t nearly conservative enough. He has spoken out against the use of torture to combat terrorism and has joined the fight against global warming. Encouraged by his wife, he has also put his prestige and money behind helping people with AIDS.

More importantly for the much wider scope of Americans, however, is the terrible economic situation in the United States and globally.

Obama won the presidential election, in part, through voters’ belief that he was better able than Republican John McCain to deal with the economic meltdown. Part of his campaign pledge was a tax cut for middle- and low-income earners while increasing the federal levy on wealthier Americans.

Axelrod assured taxpayers that the tax cut was at the top of Obama’s agenda, while he declared higher taxes for more wealthy Americans also was in the cards, although less immediately.

Axelrod said the quick move to cut taxes is “vital.”

“People need money in their pockets,” he said. “That’ll get our economy going again.”

Congress should have a new stimulus plan ready for the new president to sign as soon as possible, Axelrod said.

“Obviously, the sooner the better. I don’t think Americans can wait,” he said. “People are suffering, our economy is sliding, and we need to act. And so our message to Congress is to work on it with all deliberate speed.”

Axelrod placed the cost of a planned Obama stimulus package at “$675 billion to $775 billion” but said “those numbers are not fixed.”

And he reiterated that higher taxes for the wealthy also remained on the agenda. That is planned to happen through revocation of tax cuts for that group passed during the Bush administration or by allowing the measure to expire in 2010.

“Whether it expires or we repeal it a little bit early we’ll determine later, but it’s going to go. It has to go.” Axelrod said. “We feel it’s important that middle class people get some relief now.”

Those cuts will be part of the new administration’s stimulus plan, Axelrod said. “This package will include a portion of that tax cut that will become part of the permanent tax cut that he’ll have in his upcoming budget.”

Eliminating Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthy while adding in new middle-class tax reductions does not mean that Obama is raising taxes, Axelrod argued. Obama contends his plan would return the assessment on the wealthy to the level it was during President Bill Clinton’s administration in the 1990s.

“It’ll just restore some balance,” said Axelrod, saying the two moves will equal a “net tax cut for the American people.”

Axelrod also said Obama wants to create as many as 3 million jobs for work-starved Americans, but wants those jobs to be in areas that will help the U.S. economy in the future. Obama’s staff has talked about “creating or saving” millions of jobs with his economic program.

“We want to do it in a way that leaves a lasting footprint, by investing in energy and health care projects and refurbishing the nation’s classrooms and labs and libraries so our kids can compete, and rebuilding our crumbling roads and bridges and waterways,” Axelrod said. “And in this way, we’re not only creating work, but we’re laying the foundation for the future of our economy.”

Axelrod appeared Sunday on NBC television’s “Meet the Press” and CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

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4 Comments

adaydream at 07:47 AM JST - 29th December

It'll happen. Unlike when george bush who said he would not attack Iraq without facts, Barack Obama will be true to his word.

I'm waiting for the tax cuts, don't expect much, but I'm more looking forward to doing away tax cuts to the rich.

I'm waiting for controls in the markets, which will make Wall Street use real money, not derivitives. < :-)
itcher74 at 08:18 AM JST - 29th December

Obama can do whatever with taxes, he can do this to increase purchase power on the people and lower interest rates but nothing will work for the economy because US is bankrupt and nothing will stop US from deflation and a sinking Dollar. US also needs to start paying debts or pay their debts by giving ownership of companies to countries who they owe money to. The reason why US is bankrupt is because the country use more money than they can afford. And the money which they have is worthless paper. The Dollar bill is not tied to anything such as gold. The Dollar is not backed up by anything because the Dollar is only backed by the idea of something therefore Obama can do whatever he wants but it will not work.
itcher74 at 01:11 PM JST - 29th December

The September crisis on stock market was an Illuminati plan to collapse the economy and by the middle of 2009 bring martial law into effect. Obama has already announced that there will be a currency crisis. The debate is if the Illuminati want to create a new currenvy in US, the Amero. China Bank has already bought 800bln Ameros. The Amero will be a merger of the Mexican, US and Canadian currencies. But it still woun´t work because US has debt.
Sarge at 09:47 PM JST - 31st December

"Bush administration tax cuts for the wealthy will be revoked or allowed to expire"

And, unfortunately, Bush administration tax cuts for everyone else too.