Obama Wants to Revive 'Death Tax'

Steve Case to lead White House's pro-entrepreneurship campaign

(NEWSER) - President Obama's entrepreneurship campaign is getting a helping hand from the tech industry. AOL co-founder Steve Case will lead the "Startup America Partnership," a drive to increase investments in startups and small businesses, Bloomberg reports. The initiative already has the backing of a number of tech giants: Intel says it will invest $200 million in US tech companies; IBM, HP, and Facebook will fund programs to promote and help entrepreneurs. More»

The mega-rich are sucking America dry, pay less taxes than ever

(NEWSER) - The electorate may have little love for wealthy, would-be politicians like Meg Whitman, John Raese, and Linda McMahon, writes Frank Rich for the New York Times . But maybe they should: Whitman and Co. were at least trying to give back, unlike most obscenely wealthy folk. The top 1% of American earners gobbled up 23.5% of the nation’s pretax income in 2007—up from less than 9% in 1976—and to stem this growing chasm between the überrich and the rest of us, Rich says the president must simply and decisively let the Bush tax cuts expire for the top 2%. More»

Education, R&D are up, oil and gas companies down

(NEWSER) - The 2011 fiscal budget says much about the state of the country—and the state of the president. "Like any politician, he’s focused on rewarding friends and not enemies," write Eamon Javers and James Hohmann for Politico . A look at this year's winners and losers: Winners

• Education: "Ramped-up" spending and major reforms should please Obama's supporters in the teachers' unions.

Shifting president must be worried about independents

(NEWSER) - President Obama must be worried about independents and moderates, because he’s made a dramatic shift to the center in recent days. In an economics speech Tuesday, Obama lavished praise on small businesses, promising tax cuts as incentives to grow. “This is how Republicans, moderates and centrists think, and talk,” writes Peggy Noonan for the Wall Street Journal . “It was as if he were waving his arms and saying, ‘Hey taxpayer, I’m not your enemy!’” More»

Ten turncoats make absurd stand on Estate Tax

(NEWSER) - Ten Senate Democrats have joined with Republicans in opposing President Obama’s plan to reinstate the estate tax, set by the Bush team to expire next year, on amounts over $3.5 million. Michael Kinsley, writing in the Washington Post, has one question: “Why in the world?” Currently, rich couples can leave $7 million to their kids without paying a cent, but the senators want to make it $10 million and lower the tax rate from 45% to 35%.. “This is amazing,” writes an astonished Kinsley. More»