Obama tours country asking for your change

By Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM)
11/28/2012
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

Presidental tour is seeking support for tax increases.

President Obama is taking his fiscal cliff fight to the American people, making good on an old threat he made. The only problem is he's campaigning when perhaps he should be in Washington.

Obama want your change, literally.

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LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Back on the trail that was so familiar just weeks ago, Obama is meeting with public figures and business leaders to sell them on his plan to raise taxes on the wealthy. The tax increases are the centerpiece of his plan to reduce the deficit.

Obama wants more money and without it, it is unlikely a deal will be reached that avoids the fiscal cliff.

The fiscal cliff refers to a series of automatic cuts that will be broadly applied to various programs if no deal has been reached before January. Economists fear that if the fiscal cliff is reached, it will trigger another recession.

Some lawmakers, such as Rand Paul of Kentucky, fear the deal will be reached, but will consist of an agreement to raise the debt ceiling along with taxes and will be hastily contrived.

The stock market is becoming increasingly hesitant about the likelihood of an agreement before Christmas.

Obama isn't letting up pressure either. This week he is meeting with representatives of middle-class advocacy groups as well as business leaders. At the same time, Republicans are applying pressure of their own by meeting with small business owners and others who are threatened by Obama's tax increases.

However, both sides do appear ready to compromise. Earlier this week, several Republicans made clear that a no-tax pledge they took before coming into office no longer applied, signaling a willingness to allow at least some of the Bush-era tax cuts to expire.

The timing is critical. The markets have already shown promise of improvement, if a deal can be reached. The bellwether housing and job markets have shown slow, but perceptible improvement.

Many economists now say that economic drag is being caused more by the fiscal cliff uncertainty than anything else. While the European debt crisis remains a factor in international markets, the US market is poised to rebound more strongly in 2013 - if a deal is reached.

Of course, the final shape of the deal remains in doubt since neither side has sat down to discuss details. Meetings thus far have only been to urge cooperation.

Most Americans appear to favor increased taxes on the wealthy to make up the revenue gap, at least according to the polls. It also appears inevitable that taxes will rise in 2013. What remains to be seen is how broad those taxes will be and just how responsible the corresponding cuts to government spending will be as well.

� 2012, Distributed by NEWS CONSORTIUM.

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Pope Benedict XVI's Prayer Intentions for January 2013
General Intention: The Faith of Christians. That in this Year of Faith Christians may deepen their knowledge of the mystery of Christ and witness joyfully to the gift of faith in him.
Missionary Intention: Middle Eastern Christians. That the Christian communities of the Middle East, often discriminated against, may receive from the Holy Spirit the strength of fidelity and perseverance.

Keywords: Fiscal cliff, Obama, tax hikes, wealthy, cuts, spending, deficit

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1 - 5 of 5 Comments

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6 months ago
Jerry and Mike, your posts are spot on. I couldn't have said it better myself. Yours are my sentiments exactly.
Jerry N
6 months ago
In the comments posted about this article, no one wrote that Catholic Democrats are stupid. I wrote that people who, like President Obama, think that raising taxes on the so-called "rich" would help reduce federal debt or be beneficial to the economy are stupid. I call them stupid because they hold to very stupid ideas such as this one.

This type of stupidity has nothing to do with religious faith except for those stupid enough to turn government into their deity. It is also not hateful to point out stupid ideas held by certain groups of people, as long as it is easily demonstrable by all the available facts that the ideas are, in fact, stupid ideas. Exposing others to the stupidity of tightly held, but clearly stupid, ideas is sometimes the only way to make them realize the stupidity in which they are stuck.

Perhaps Nobody should stick to explaining why the idea of "taxing the rich" is not stupid instead of taking offense to a supposed accusation that was never made in the first place.
Nobody in general
6 months ago
Would it be possible for "Christians" to not be so rancorous when referring to Obama or Catholic Democrats, particularly the use of derogatory language such as "stupid". It actually makes the "Christian" appear as evil as the people he/she is directing his/her rancorous, derogatory language and, quite frankly, ever bitg as anti-Christian as they accuse Obama. One can disagree without being disagreeable, or hateful for that matter.
Jerry N
6 months ago
"Most Americans appear to favor increased taxes on the wealthy to make up the revenue gap..."

Unfortunately, based on the results of the recent election, it appears that most Americans are now stupid enough to believe the jingoistic, populist claptrap that says "taxing the rich" is the panacea to all our ills. Increasing taxes on the wealthy will have no beneficial effect on the federal deficit or on the economy. Anyone with even the tiniest factual knowledge of economics and history should know that increasing taxes on the wealthy will only cause government to borrow and spend more, based on increased revenue projections that never materialize, and will foster higher unemployment by driving investment capital out of the country.
mike robertson
6 months ago
The angry look on this man's face tells us, I believe, so much about him. This candidate, hero to Catholic democrats, refused to acknowledge God on Thanksgiving Day. Perhaps he and Catholic democrats think he deserves the thanks. I will thank God, not the candidate of the Catholic democrats. This angry man thinks he, not God, knows what constitutes marriage. This angry man is waging a war against the Church, threatening her institutions with closure unless the Church abandons adherence to God and His laws. I know the Church will stand on God's side, not on the side of the Catholic democrats and their angry candidate. This angry man advocates killing of baby girls and boys even after they survive the attempt to kill them in their mother's womb. Catholic democrats voted for this morally corrupt social policy because they want this angry man's "compassionate, social justice" economic policy. I find the Catholic democrats economic policy quite brutal....high unemployment and poverty, decreasing wealth and incomes, unsustainable Greek-like debt. I am a low-income worker who will lose his job by January. The Catholic democrats "compassion" is hurting me and millions. Rather than break God's Commandments against covetousness and theft, I advocate rewarding, rather than punishing wealth creation and the jobs this provides for me and others. I oppose rewarding sluggard-like behavior. God says if a man or woman does not work, he should not eat. Catholic democrats voted for one who opposes requiring welfare recipients to work. The only justice in Catholic democrats' brutal economic policy is that many of them will be hurt by the Greek-like collapse they voted for. God allows us to hurt ourselves when we seek to hurt others. I will stand by God and His laws no matter what Catholic democrats and their angry hero do to me.

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