Obama adviser David Axelrod did the Sunday shows yesterday, vowing that Obama will immediately take action on his pledge to cut middle-class taxes. From the Wash Post:
HONOLULU, Dec. 28 -- President-elect Barack Obama's economic stimulus plan will include an immediate tax cut for middle-class families, and the incoming administration hopes to enact permanent tax cuts soon thereafter, a senior adviser to Obama said Sunday.
David Axelrod said the stimulus package will be implemented soon, given the worsening economy, and could cost $675 billion to $775 billion. The massive recovery plan will seek to create or save 3 million jobs, he said in appearances Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press" and CBS's "Face the Nation."
"Look, we feel it's important that middle-class people get some relief now," Axelrod said on "Meet the Press." Obama has "promised a middle-class tax cut," he added. "This package will include a portion of that tax cut that will become part of the permanent tax cut he'll have in his upcoming budget."
Obviously, it will be important politically for the new Democratic president to be able to say: I promised a tax cut, and I started delivering on it from the moment I took office. This will preemptively undercut a lot of future Republican arguments about Obama secretly waiting to raise everybody's taxes.
Left unanswered is the question of what to do with regard to those households earning more than $250,000 a year. The less aggressive approach is to wait until the current Bush tax cuts on people in that category expire in 2011. The more aggressive approach is to raise them sooner. This is a question Axelrod and the Obama team aren't answering yet.
