STAFF EDIT: GOP vs. Obama: Round 2

Congressional Republicans may have just narrowly failed to defeat President Barack Obama’s $787 billion stimulus package, but now they are more determined than ever to fight Obama on his $3.6 trillion budget proposal. One particular aspect of the budget that has Republicans so upset is Obama’s proposal to raise taxes on those making over $250,000 a year. Republican Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, who nearly became a member of Obama’s administration before changing his mind at the last minute, said, ‘A tax hike is not the solution to our economic woes.’

But the debate over what is best for our struggling economy is largely over. The 2008 presidential election was all about the economy, and both Obama and Sen. John McCain laid out their economic policies for all to see. The fact that Obama wanted to raise income taxes on those making over $250,000 a year was no secret. This is not something he is pulling at the last minute; it was well-known, and Americans voted for it.

Besides, it is not as though Obama is raising taxes on the wealthy to an all-time high. He is only repealing the tax cuts that former President George W. Bush instituted during his presidency. Republicans are holding fast to the belief that cutting taxes for the rich will trickle down to the middle class. However, the current state of the economy shows that this philosophy has not lead to economic success. It is time for a change in tax policy.

$3.6 trillion is an unthinkably high amount of money – $700 billion more than Bush’s 2008 budget. But many of the initiatives funded by this budget are vital to the nation’s future, including hundreds of billions of dollars for health care reform. The money for this important piece of the budget is going to have to come from somewhere.

Nobody likes paying higher taxes, but some are going to have to step it up during this period of economic recession. Any new taxes on the lower and middle classes, however, would be too damaging because these people are struggling to get along as it is with rising unemployment rates and their children’s college tuition prices increasing. Therefore, the burden must fall on the wealthy, who simply have to go back to paying the same tax rate they paid under former President Bill Clinton. Republicans have had their chance to make the case to the public that taxes on the rich must not be raised, but Americans have chosen otherwise by putting their faith in Obama to fix the economy.