President Barack Obama said he’s focusing the last two years of his presidency on addressing income equality because most Americans haven’t enjoyed the recovery’s benefits even as the wealthiest Americans have been enriched.
In a Jan. 23 interview with the website Vox.com published Monday, Obama said wants to use tax policy to boost the economic prospects for teachers, construction workers and other middle- and lower-income Americans because so much wealth is concentrated with corporations and the wealthiest individuals.
“What we’ve proposed, for example, in terms of capital gains, that would make a big difference in our capacity to give a tax break to a working mom for child care,” Obama said his tax proposals, which he’ll need to negotiate with the Republican-controlled Congress.
“That’s smart policy, and there’s no evidence that would hurt the incentives of folks at Google or Microsoft or Uber not to invent what they invent or not to provide services they provide,” the president said. “It just means that instead of $20 billion, maybe they’ve got 18, right? But it does mean that mom can go to work without worrying that her kid’s not in a safe place.”
More Cash
Google Inc., the technology company based in Mountain View, California, had $67.5 billion in cash and equivalents at the end of 2014. It has increased its cash on hand each year since it sold shares to the public. Google’s top two shareholders are co- founders Lawrence Page and Sergey Brin, the 19th and 20th richest billionaires in the world, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Obama Says Wealth Accumulation Speaks To Need For Tax Shift
February 9, 2015
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It has nothing to do with 18 billion vs 20 billion. We have under 100 billionaires in the whole country. The tax changes Obama wants effect even the upper middle class who are the backbone of the country. I'm fine with cutting out the employee's contribution to FICA as an example which helps the middle and lower middle class, but raising the tax on capital gains on the upper middle class or someone who has one shot at selling a business they've worked thirty years in growing is just bad policy.