Before deciding what revenue options are best for dealing with the deficit and the economy, Obama said in an interview with CNBC, "I want to get a better picture of what our options are."
After Obama adviser Paul Volcker recently raised the prospect of a value-added tax, or VAT, the Senate voted 85-13 last week for a nonbinding "sense of the Senate" resolution that calls the such a tax "a massive tax increase that will cripple families on fixed income and only further push back America's economic recovery."
For days, White House spokesmen have said the president has not proposed and is not considering a VAT.
"I think I directly answered this the other day by saying that it wasn't something that the president had under consideration," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters shortly before Obama spoke with CNBC.
After the interview, White House deputy communications director Jen Psaki said nothing has changed and the White House is "not considering" a VAT.
Many European countries impose a VAT, which taxes the value that is added at each stage of production of certain commodities. It could apply, for instance, to raw products delivered to a mill, the mill's production work and so on up the line to the retailer.
In the CNBC interview, Obama said he was waiting for recommendations from a bipartisan fiscal advisory commission on ways to tackle the deficit and other problems.
When asked if he could see a potential VAT in this nation, the president said: "I know that there's been a lot of talk around town lately about the value-added tax. That is something that has worked for some countries. It's something that would be novel for the United States."
"And before, you know, I start saying 'this makes sense or that makes sense,' I want to get a better picture of what our options are," Obama said.
He said his first priority "is to figure out how can we reduce wasteful spending so that, you know, we have a baseline of the core services that we need and the government should provide. And then we decide how do we pay for that."
[That was the 'laugh line'-- are you laughing?-- Editor]
9 comments:
sounds to me that the headline should read "Reporter suggests that Obama suggests VAT".
Gee that is just horrible...a President that is thoughtful.
10:02
Who would that be, certainly not Obama. Obam said in a interview that we should look at a VAT. That is just taking us down the road toward European Socialism. We are American and fought a war not to be like Europe.
Haha 10:30 you must be like 100 years old. Nobody under 40 has any clue that the US ever fought in any world wars. Pearl Harbor is just a lousy Hollywood movie and Vietnam is some wall in DC.
10:30 Think you better go back and study why we were in that war.
Take the tin foil hat off 10:30, he only said that in your own mind.
11:44
I just love you Obamabots. If you would watch the news sometimes or do some research you would be more informed. Let me make it easy for you. Google Obama Vat Tax. It will take you to a Yahoo News Page that will tell you that on Wednesday 04/21/10 Obama suggested that a value added tax was on the table.
So take off you tin hat and blinders. This idiot along with the dems in congress will tax you ass off
"It's something that would be novel for the United States."
Yeah, a flippin' horror novel!
Yes, it's not enough that there is a list of taxes we pay already, let's add another...why not, Congress can't be asked to reduce spending or actually cut waste or stop buying votes, no, no WE shouldn't do that. Those tea partiers are rocking the boat, we better make sure they look crazy otherwise the rest of the uninformed may start paying attention. Obamabots, here's a clue, we know your gameplan and we're getting more people to wise up. That's the way to do it right.
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