Barack Obama talks about the economy and taxes with Maria Bartiromo. His proposals make sense. Some taxes will go back to the rates during the Clinton years, while many middle class Americans will get a tax cut. When asked about some of the tax increases, Obama has a great response:
Why raise taxes in a slowdown? Isn’t that going to put a further strain on people?
There’s no doubt that anything I do is going to be premised on what the economic situation is when I take office next January. The thing you can be assured of is that I’m not going to make these decisions based on ideology. I’m not a dogmatist. My opponents to the right would like to paint me as this wild-eyed liberal, but I believe in the market. I believe in entrepreneurship. I believe in capitalism, and I want to do what works. One of the problems with the Bush Administration has been its rigidness when it comes to economic policy. It doesn’t matter what the problem is, they’ll say tax cuts. Trade deficit? Tax cuts. Slowdown in manufacturing? Tax cuts. At a certain point, if you’ve only got one arrow in the quiver, you’re going to have problems.
