President Obama and at least one of his advisers still have their talking points crossed on their advocacy of Obama’s proposed tax increases.
Obama and his senior adviser, David Plouffe, have used contradictory language to push these tax increases – Obama called these hikes “tax reform” last week, but then Plouffe specifically volunteered yesterday that these tax hikes do not constitute tax reform.
“The president would like to do tax reform,” Plouffe said. “But absent tax reform, the president believes the right way to get our fiscal house in order is to ask the wealthy to pay their fair share.”
Apparently, Plouffe misrepresented, rather than clarified, Obama’s position. Today, even after Plouffe’s remarks, Obama explained that he regards tax increases for the wealthy as tax reform. Obama defined his “tax reform” to a Silicon Valley audience this afternoon:
That comment must have resonated with the audience, because the first questioner of the event – a wealthy Democrat donor – asked Obama if he would “please raise my taxes.”
More critical observers such as New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg – not renowned as a conservative critic of Obama – said that the president’s Warren Buffett anecdote is “just theatrics,” and explained:
But that doesn’t change Obama’s position, despite even his own past declaration that “you don’t raise taxes during a recession.”
