In all, Obama would increase taxes on some businesses and wealthy individuals by a total of about $1.4 trillion over the next decade, while cutting taxes for middle-class workers and other businesses by about $330 billion. The bottom line: Tax receipts would increase by about $1.1 trillion over the next decade.
—Raise the top two income tax rates for individuals, from 33 percent and 35 percent, to 36 percent and 39.6 percent, respectively. Unless Congress intervenes, those rates will rise next Jan. 1 when Bush's tax cuts expire. That government would reap $365 billion over the next decade.
—Limit the itemized tax deductions high earners can claim for charitable donations, mortgage interest and state and local taxes, raising about $210 billion for the next decade.
—Increase the top capital gains tax rate from 15 percent to 20 percent for families making more than $250,000 a year and individuals making more than $200,000. The proposal would raise about $105 billion.
—Restrict the ability of international companies to defer taxes on profits made overseas, raising about $26 billion over the next decade.
—Impose a total of about $39 billion in tax increases on oil, gas and coal companies over the next decade.
Here’s how the Wall Street Journal reports on Obama’s Tax Bomb:
Overall the fiscal 2011 budget plan would raise a total of about $468 billion from businesses over the next 10 years, compared to about $410 billion in last year's budget proposal. That's in addition to almost $1 trillion in planned increases on mainly high-income individuals…
there are substantial increases proposed in other levies. U.S. oil and gas and coal producers; producers of cellulosic ethanol made from paper byproducts; employers who pay unemployment taxes; owners of rental property; and companies that rely on independent contractors could all face higher tax burdens if the plan released Monday is adopted.
The real bottom line: It’s going to be harder for employers to afford you, for investors to gamble on new businesses and for anyone to stay in business in the first place. The only winners in this budget are people who don’t pay taxes in the first place.
"The truth is something [Warren] probably prefers not to confront. Harvard doesn’t come calling just because you’re a smart lawyer and a terrific teacher — not with Warren’s modest, Oklahoma upbringing and non-Ivy League education. She is not your typical Harvard professor. At a certain point, when the law school was under pressure to promote diversity, she represented a three-fer: a great lawyer with a national profile, a woman, and a minority, at least by virtue of family lore. "
-- Joan Vennochi
