President Barack Obama/Vice-President Joe Biden Re-elected to 2nd Term Thread

[Jumbo]

The Big Man's in the hood.

http://xfinity.comcast.net/articles/...hero_media_sea

Obama promoting steps to boost US trade

SAN FRANCISCO — President Barack Obama is outlining new steps to boost U.S. exports during a visit to a Boeing assembly plant in Washington state, calling on Congress to continue financing a national export credit agency crucial to a goal of doubling exports by 2014.

Obama was to tour the Boeing facility in Everett on Friday, promoting foreign trade and manufacturing at the end of a three-day trip that included a stop at a Milwaukee padlock manufacturer.

Congress extended the Export-Import Bank's authorization through May of this year, but White House officials said the bank will reach its lending limit at the end of March. Obama has pointed to the bank as a key player in helping promote U.S. exports.

At the same time, Obama was to announce that Boeing will participate in an Export-Import Bank program that helps companies advance money to suppliers on export-related contracts. Administration officials said Boeing would be committing to more than $700 million in short-term credit this year. Officials said the arrangement would help Boeing compete for foreign clients against European jet maker Airbus.

Officials said the administration intends to use the Export-Import Bank to help U.S. companies counter foreign companies that are getting unfair assistance from their governments.

(more at lin-k <----)

[Buford]

Obama proposes lowering corporate tax rate to 28 percent

The Obama administration proposed a major overhaul of the nation’s corporate tax code on Wednesday, an election-year gambit that aims to draw a contrast over a key policy issue with the Republicans vying to replace him.

The plan would lower the nation’s corporate tax rate to 28 percent. At the same time, he wants to boost overall revenues from corporate taxation by banning numerous deductions and loopholes that save companies tens of billions of dollars a year on their tax bills, according to a senior administration official.

“The current tax code was written for a different economy in a different era. It needs to be reformed and modernized,” Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said in outlining the proposal in the early afternoon.

“Our corporate tax rate is now on pace to become the highest among all developed economies,” Geithner said. “The rate is high in order to pay for a tax code full of special benefits for certain industries and certain activities... Whatever you call them, they are subsidies. They are spending through the tax code. And they are expensive, costing billions of dollars a year.”

The current U.S. corporate tax rate of 35 percent is one of the highest in the world, but the abundance of loopholes and deductions enable many businesses to pay far less than that — or nothing at all. Companies in the United States pay almost half the taxes that companies in other rich countries pay, compared with the size of the economy, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Obama is also targeting oil and gas companies for tax increases while promising special breaks for manufacturing companies, according to a senior administration official.

The prognosis for the overhaul plan in Congress is unclear. Many Republicans, including the leading presidential candidates, have favored reducing taxes on businesses well below what the president is proposing.

Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, who has called for a 25 percent tax rate for corporations, is planning to speak on tax reform later this week, while his rivals for the GOP nomination have called for far lower tax rates.

Despite those disagreements, Republicans and Democrats have shown support for a tax strategy that reduces rates across the board while eliminating special-interest loopholes.

More from the link

[mjah]

Nothing wrong with reducing the 35% paper rate, as long as it doesn't actually reduce revenues. Closing loopholes seems like a big plus, given that the average effective tax rate paid by corporations is something like 15-17% (or was when I last checked). That's roughly a 50-60% discount vs. the paper rate, which is absurd. When the paper rate is pulling that hard in one direction and loopholes can pull that hard in the other, it's time to move each substantially closer to the other and make it clear: if you enjoy making use of our stable societal infrastructure to provide a service and turn a profit, then you should pay transparently to maintain the very same infrastructure that made your profit possible.

But I get nervous about projections that assume certain behaviors of taypaxing (and -dodging) companies. It seems they rarely behave as expected.

[Corcaigh]

Strange ... I don't have anyone on ignore, but I can't see H_h's original post. Is this some sort of premium content you have to subscribe to now?

[MLSKINS]

Strange ... I don't have anyone on ignore, but I can't see H_h's original post. Is this some sort of premium content you have to subscribe to now?

Thought I was the only one....

[Rdskns2000]

This is just something to campaign on. In reality, if he and dems have full control there will be no tax cuts.

[USS Redskins]

Latest Gallup has Romney up by 4pts over Obama... not saying that Obama will lose but with gas prices looking to exceed 4.00 per gallon and if unemployment starts climbing again, well, then Obama may start to look at those return flights to Chicago.

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/...by-four-points

[deejaydana]

then Obama may start to look at those return flights to Chicago.

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we can only hope for this outcome.

[Jumbo]

I still think Romney has a real shot at the (big) win.

[Duckus]

Latest Gallup has Romney up by 4pts over Obama... not saying that Obama will lose but with gas prices looking to exceed 4.00 per gallon and if unemployment starts climbing again, well, then Obama may start to look at those return flights to Chicago.

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/...by-four-points

An AP Poll from yesterday (I think yesterday?) shows Obama beats any GOP candidate by a fairly wide margin head-to-head.

Polls seem to be all over the place.

[SkinsHokieFan]

I think the President wins the election but fails to break 300 EVs

I think I have him projected at something like 296 EV's right now.

[deejaydana]

I really don't know how much to read into these polling numbers. Rasmussen is a fairly good source but watching those debates none of the GOP candidates seem very strong to me at the moment.

[mistertim]

I really don't know how much to read into these polling numbers. Rasmussen is a fairly good source but watching those debates none of the GOP candidates seem very strong to me at the moment.

Rasmussen is a pretty terrible source, IMO. Their polls are consistently right leaning (the way they frame their questions, how they break up their demographics, how they interpret data, etc) and get almost consistently different results than the average of other polls.

[deejaydana]

Rasmussen is a pretty terrible source, IMO. Their polls are consistently right leaning (the way they frame their questions, how they break up their demographics, how they interpret data, etc) and get almost consistently different results than the average of other polls.

Well, the AP is not a trusted source either imho.

[NoVaO]

I'll repeat what I said in Romney's thread:

Gallup has been screwy for a while. Gallup has consistently been Obama's poorest poll. It's like they overcompensated for their 2008 result in which they had Obama winning by 11 points.

In 2010, their final generic house poll was R +15, when the actual result was more like R +6.

Can you spot the outlier?

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epo...andidates.html

Obama is ahead 49-43.9 vs. Romney in the RCP average. And then you consider the recent state polling that has been released, it's clear Gallup's poll is well off the mark.

That said, of course gas is a worry. Probably the biggest headwind this economy faces right now, even more than Europe at the moment.

---------- Post added February-23rd-2012 at 04:55 PM ----------

Rasmussen is a pretty terrible source, IMO. Their polls are consistently right leaning (the way they frame their questions, how they break up their demographics, how they interpret data, etc) and get almost consistently different results than the average of other polls.

The funny thing is that Rasmussen has Obama beating Romney by 10 right now, beating Romney in Virginia by 6, and destroying his competition in New Mexico by like 20 points. Go figure.