Obama Pitches Costly Tax & Spend Economic Plan

on June 18, 2008 at 9:31 am

While Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama is selling himself as a candidate who is thinking outside the traditional political box, his economic recovery plan is pure New Deal Democratic tax & spend.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal yesterday, Obama outlined the following steps he would take to fix the slumping U.S. economy, if he is elected president:

Spend: Dish out $150 billion over 10 years on an energy-technology investment program including the development of wind, coal and nuclear power, if it can be determined that nuclear power is safe.
Tax: Not renew Bush tax cuts for people making $250,000 or more when the cuts expire.
Tax: Increase tax on capital gains and dividends for individuals earning $250,000 or more.

While Obama said these steps would be certain, he tried to offset his tax-and-spend program by holding out a couple carrots on sticks.

Obama said he would consider cutting corporate tax rates, as part of a broad tax-reform plan.

Translation: He’ll hike other taxes that will more than offset the carrot given to corporations.
Obama added that he would also consider eliminating capital gains taxes on start-up companies and offer additional tax cuts of $1,000 per “middle-class” family, which he did not define. He also said he could consider eliminating income taxes for people over 65 earning less than $50,000, thus rounding his economic program off with typical Democratic class warfare.

What do you think of Obama’s plan? Will it work?

Crossposted on LastReporter.com