Obama Trying to Shift Burden to the Rich

By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 25, 2009 7:46 PM CST
Obama Trying to Shift Burden to the Rich
President Obama speaks to the press Wednesday.   (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

As details trickle out about President Obama's budget, one clear picture is emerging—he is dead-set on making the rich pay more, write Jackie Calmes and Robert Pear in the New York Times. In the latest example, he plans to fund half of his health-care reform through tax increases on the wealthy. At the same time, he intends to give low-income families a tax break by funneling them money from his initiative to make companies pay for polluting.

"The combined effect of the two proposals, on top of Mr. Obama’s existing plan to roll back the Bush-era income tax reductions on upper-income households, would be a pronounced move to redistribute wealth and reimpose a substantially larger share of the tax burden on the most affluent taxpayers," write Calmes and Pear. Look for Republicans to push back hard during debate on Obama's domestic policies.
(More President Obama stories.)

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