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Obama aide hints at tax relief
President-elect Barack Obama plans to push ahead with a middle-class tax cut soon after taking office, his choice for White House chief of staff said on Sunday.
- By Michael A. Fletcher, LAT-WP
- Published: 00:11 November 11, 2008
- Image Credit: AP
- A member of the First African Methodist Episcopal Church's dance troupe performs during a service to celebrate president-elect Barack Obama's election on Sunday in Los Angeles. At bottom right is Delorise Blacker who attended church in a stretcher.
Washington: President-elect Barack Obama plans to push ahead with a middle-class tax cut soon after taking office, his choice for White House chief of staff said on Sunday.
Rahm Emanuel also hinted that Obama would not postpone a tax increase for families earning more than $250,000 (Dh918,950) a year despite the deepening economic gloom.
He said Obama's proposals would reduce taxes for 95 per cent of working Americans by an average of $1,000 each, resulting in "a net tax cut" for the overall economy.
"The middle class must be the focus of the econ-omic strategy," Emanuel said on ABC's This Week.
Over the past eight years, he noted, median household incomes have decreased, when adjusted for inflation, while the costs for essentials - including education, energy and health care - have soared.
Once the new administration takes over on January 20, Emanuel said, Obama would act quickly to expand health-care coverage, revamp energy policy and make education more affordable.
But just how boldly he will move in each area, given the nation's ballooning budget deficit and worsening economic downturn, is something that transition officials are weighing.
Saying that Obama's decisive election victory amounts to a mandate, many of the president-elect's staunchest supporters, including labour leaders, are looking for strong, swift action on many of the sweeping proposals - including reforming health care and increasing the minimum wage and indexing it to inflation - that he pushed on the campaign trail.
But at the same time, Obama will be under pressure from fiscal conservatives and others to restrain spending, which could cause him to move slowly on his most ambitious plans.
Emanuel offered no clues on Obama's thinking. But the congressman said broadening access to health care and implementing an economic stimulus plan are part of Obama's overall goal of shifting federal policy to address the mounting economic concerns of working Americans.
The economic crisis "provides the opportunity, as the president-elect has said repeatedly, to do things that Americans have pushed off for years", Emanuel said.
In the short term, he said, Congress should extend unemployment benefits and help states pay health-care costs when it returns for a lame-duck session this month.
He also suggested that Obama, who remains a member of the Senate, would not take part in negotiations over a stimulus plan.
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