Analysis: Candidates' deficit plans don't add up. WASHINGTON (AP) — Here's the rap on the presidential candidates' plans for cutting federal deficits: Mitt Romney's is too bold and the numbers don't add up, while President Barack Obama's is too timid and his numbers don't add up, either. As the government closed the books Sunday with a $1.1 trillion deficit for the year, which required borrowing 32 cents for every dollar it spent, budget analysts have little confidence in either man's plan to address the accumulating debt, now at about $16 trillion.
The Republican nominee promises to balance the budget in eight years to 10 years, but he also offers a mix of budgetary contradictions: higher Pentagon spending, restoring cuts that Democrats made in Medicare and an absolute refusal to consider tax increases. To fulfill his promise, Romney would require cuts to other programs so deep — under one calculation requiring cutting many areas of the domestic budget by one-third within four years — that they could never get through Congress.
Issues Page - 2012 Election Center - Elections & Politics from CNN.com. The economy, unemployment, taxes and how to manage the federal government's $14 trillion debt will be leading issues in the 2012 campaign. With the near-collapse of the U.S. banking and financial system hitting late in the 2008 race, and the nosedive in employment levels, President Obama's tenure in the Oval Office has been defined, in many ways, by the economy and the worst recession in a lifetime.
Republicans, led by the tea party movement -- the conservative wing of the Republican party -- have been hammering Obama's economic and fiscal policy since 2009, pushing GOP candidates to hold firm on pledges not to raise taxes and to cut spending. But headed toward the so-called fiscal cliff –when several rounds of tax cuts expire at the end of 2012, resulting in a half trillion dollars in budget cuts and tax hikes that could push the U.S. into another recession – Congress and the president are poised for another fight. Gov. Tax Cuts Don't Lead to Economic Growth, a New 65-Year Study Finds - Derek Thompson. Here's a brief economic history of the last quarter-century in taxes and growth. In 1990, President George H. W. Bush raised taxes, and GDP growth increased over the next five years. In 1993, President Bill Clinton raised the top marginal tax rate, and GDP growth increased over the next five years. In 2001 and 2003, President Bush cut taxes, and we faced a disappointing expansion followed by a Great Recession.
Does this story prove that raising taxes helps GDP? No. But it does suggest that there is a lot more to an economy than taxes, and that slashing taxes is not a guaranteed way to accelerate economic growth. That was the conclusion from David Leonhardt's new column today for The New York Times, and it was precisely the finding of a new study from the Congressional Research Service, "Taxes and the Economy: An Economic Analysis of the Top Tax Rates Since 1945. " Well into the 1950s, the top marginal tax rate was above 90%. Here are two graphs of the top 0.1% and 0.01%. The grades are in: Obama's first-term report card.
Barack Obama vowed to close Guantanamo, but legal hurdles and resistance in Congress neutralized his executive order. Barack Obama promised to end "petty grievances and false promises" in WashingtonRepublicans were quick to publicly admit they would not make his job easyPolitiFact evaluated 508 promises and concluded the president has kept 37% of themFor the unfulfilled promises, PolitiFact editor said there is plenty of blame to go around Washington (CNN) -- An energized electorate inspired by a groundbreaking election and expectations as high as Mount Everest had grown accustomed to greeting him with spontaneous chants of "yes we can. " He promised to take "bold, swift action" on the ailing economy and break the partisan grip on Washington by ending what he called "petty grievances and false promises. " Obama proclaims an end to 'petty grievances' This high bar assured there would be a very long to-do-list, and some Republicans were quick to publicly admit they would not make his job easy.
Tax battle: Obama vs. Romney - Sep. 7. Obama and Romney square off on just how much to tax the rich and the middle class in terms of income, investments and estates. NEW YORK (CNNMoney) And for good reason. It accounts for nearly half of all federal revenue. But tax experts and policymakers say that money could be generated in ways that are fairer, simpler and more conducive to economic growth. How best to achieve those ends, however, is the subject of endless debate. An interim step in that debate is just what to do with the Bush-era tax cuts, set to expire this year. Here's a rundown on the individual income and estate tax proposals made so far by Obama and Romney. Related: Romney vs. Individual income tax rates: They are currently 10%, 15%, 25%, 33%, and 35%.
Obama: Would make those Bush-era tax rates permanent for everyone except those making more than $200,000 ($250,000 if married). Romney: Would reduce each of the Bush-era income tax rates by 20%. Romney would also like to repeal the new health reform law. The top 9,486 ways Jay Carney won’t answer your questions (interactive) | The Ticket. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) Jay Carney doesn’t have an answer for that. He hasn’t discussed that subject with the president. He will refer you to the Department of [insert agency here]. He refuses to speculate on that. He’ll have to get back to you. But he appreciates the question.
A Yahoo News analysis of the 444 briefings through June 18 that Carney has held since becoming White House press secretary has identified 13 distinct strains in the way he dodges reporters' question. In the following interactive, you can browse all 9,486 of Carney’s most-used responses and verbal crutches. The main function of a White House press secretary is to shape messaging for the administration, which often requires stymieing questions as a form of damage control. Reporters got several doses of that at Friday's briefing, including a rather repetitive back-and-forth over what kind of aid (arms?
When pressed further? And further? In Obama era, have race relations improved? PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Ask Americans how race relations have changed under their first black president and they are ready with answers. Ashley Ray, a white woman, hears more people debating racial issues. "I know a lot of people who really thought we were OK as a nation, a culture, and now they understand that we're not," she says. Karl Douglass, a black man, sees stereotypes easing. "White people deal with me and my family differently," he says. Jose Lozano, who is Hispanic by way of Puerto Rico, believes prejudice is emerging from the shadows. In the afterglow of Barack Obama's historic victory, most people in the United States believed that race relations would improve.
As the nation moves toward the multiracial future heralded by this son of an African father and white mother, the events of Obama's first term, and what people make of them, help trace the racial arc of his presidency. [Related: Thoughts on race under a black president] Then he joked, "But that lasted about a day. " Obama's spending: Runaway or reasonable? Political Perceptions: Obama Disdains the Quick Q&A - Washington Wire. 10 Things Presidential Candidates Won't Say. By Jonnelle Marte 1. "I'm powerless to change the economy. " When Americans head to the polls this month, political analysts say the economy is going to be issue number one.
Although President Barack Obama and Republican candidate Mitt Romney have differing views on how to add spark to the recovery, the man chosen for the job will likely have very little influence on the direction of the economy, experts say. The shrinking labor force and the globalization of certain industries, along with other, unpredictable events, will have more of an impact on the economy in the long run than, say, the president's proposals for energy or small business lending, says Eugene Steuerle, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute, a think tank in Washington D.C. "There are a lot of economic forces that are basically outside of their control," he says. Audio Smartmoney reporter Jonnelle Marte discusses some things that presidential candidates won't say with The Wall Street Journal This Morning's Gordon Deal. Romney’s bullying, Obama’s girlfriends, and the character test: What can we know about a president, anyway? Take a step back from the “Mitt Romney, Teen Bully” dust-up, and ask yourself why The Washington Post spent 5,500 words delving into the details of Romney’s prep-school days, or why Barack Obama’s youthful romances garnered so much attention when excerpts from David Maraniss’ biography appeared in Vanity Fair.
Apart from voyeuristic curiosity, these excursions into the past are justified because they are supposed to provide insight into the character of a president and his rival. That’s been a special focus of the political press ever since Duke political scientist James David Barber first published his ground-breaking work “The Presidential Character” 40 years ago, arguing that an understanding of a candidate’s psychological makeup was a guide to predicting presidential behavior. Fair enough, I guess. Maybe we can see the seeds of Obama’s detachment in the musings of a long-ago love. Both became transforming presidents. An EXCLUSIVE inside look at the Republicans’ anti-Obama war room | Power Players. Political Punch While Republican candidates battled it out in their primaries and caucuses, the Republican National Committee (RNC) was preparing for the general election battle against President Obama.
Political Punch got an exclusive look inside the committee's anti-Obama attack machine, and the space they call "the war room. " "We said from the very beginning ... we were going to get this building in fighting shape for the Republican nominee, and part of that - in today's news cycle, 24/7 - is to be on things instantly," said RNC Chairman Reince Priebus. That means having transcripts of all President Obama's speeches at the ready, and responding immediately any time there is a gaffe by a the president, vice president, or a Democratic operative. Attack plans are hatched daily in a morning meeting, where a team headed by RNC Communications Director Sean Spicer constantly maps and monitors every move of the president and his surrogates. Romney on spending: Guns triumph over butter. WASHINGTON (AP) — Reducing government deficits Mitt Romney's way would mean less money for health care for the poor and disabled and big cuts to nuts-and-bolts functions such as food inspection, border security and education.
Romney also promises budget increases for the Pentagon, above those sought by some GOP defense hawks, meaning that the rest of the government would have to shrink even more. Nonmilitary programs would incur still larger cuts than those called for in the tightfisted GOP budget that the House passed last month. Differences over the government's budget and spiraling deficits are among the starkest that separate Republican Romney and Democratic President Barack Obama. Obama's budget generally avoids risk, with minimal cuts to rapidly growing health care programs such as Medicare and Medicaid while socking wealthier people with tax increases. The math can get fuzzy. So what's left to cut? Romney promises to immediately cut them by 5 percent.