Obama says he'd delay rescinding tax cuts
WASHINGTON: Democrat Barack Obama says he would delay rescinding President Bush's tax cuts on wealthy Americans if he becomes the next president and the economy is in a recession, suggesting such an increase would further hurt the economy. Nevertheless, Obama has no plans to extend the Bush tax cuts beyond their expiration date, as Republican John McCain advocates. Instead, Obama wants to push for his promised tax cuts for the middle class, he said in a broadcast interview aired yesterday. "Even if we're still in a recession, I'm going to go through with my tax cuts," Obama said on ThisWeek on ABC. "That's my priority." McCain has repeatedly hammered Obama over taxes in an attempt to paint him as a typical tax-and-spend liberal. McCain wants to make permanent the Bush tax cuts, which are set to expire at the end of 2010.
"We can get this economy back on its feet," McCain said in an interview aired yesterday on Face the Nation on CBS. "Don't raise their taxes. Get it going again. Americans are hurting in a way that they have not hurt for a long time."
The Tax Policy Center, a think tank run jointly by the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute, concluded that Obama's tax plan would benefit middle-income taxpayers more than McCain's. However, Obama would raise payroll taxes on taxpayers with incomes above $250,000, and he would raise corporate taxes. Small businesses that make more than $250,000 a year also would see taxes rise.
ABC confirms planned interview with Palin
NEW YORK: Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin has agreed to sit down with ABC's Charles Gibson later this week for her first television interview since John McCain chose her as his running mate more than a week ago. ABC would not release any details about where and when Gibson would question Palin; a McCain-Palin adviser had said earlier yesterday that the interview was expected to take place later this week in Alaska. The interview with Palin was confirmed Friday, ABC News spokesman Jeffrey Schneider said. The first-term Alaska governor has given speeches alongside McCain since becoming his surprise pick Aug. 29. But Democrats have already begun to question why Palin has not been put before reporters to answer questions. McCain said yesterday he expected Palin to start doing interviews "in the next few days."
Senator Kennedy to work from home until January
WASHINGTON: Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, who has brain cancer, will not be on Capitol Hill this week when Congress returns from its summer break. He intends to work from his Massachusetts home this fall and return to the Senate in January. A Kennedy aide said yesterday that the Democratic lawmaker's doctors are pleased with his progress, but want him to keep working from home through the fall. "As Senator Kennedy said two weeks ago in Denver, he intends to be on the floor of the United States Senate next January when we begin to write the next great chapter of American progress," spokeswoman Melissa Wagoner said in a statement. Kennedy, 76, was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor after he had a seizure in May. He has had surgery and a six-week course of chemotherapy and radiation. He has been working from his home in Hyannis Port, Mass.
