Iraq death toll

Obama's Tax cuts

09/07/08

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 Sunday.

"Even if we're still in a recession, I'm going to go through with my tax cuts," Obama said. "That's my priority."

What about increasing taxes on the wealthy?

"I think we've got to take a look and see where the economy is. I mean, the economy is weak right now," Obama said on "This Week" on ABC. "The news with Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, I think, along with the unemployment numbers, indicates that we're fragile."

Obama was referring to the two mortgage companies taken over by the federal government Sunday in what could become a huge taxpayer bailout. The nation's unemployment rate climbed to 6.1 percent in August from 5.7 percent the month before, the government said last week. It was the first time in five years that the unemployment rate had topped 6 percent.

Obama and McCain have sparred over tax policy for months. Obama says McCain wants to continue Bush administration policies, noting that McCain had voted against the Bush tax cuts but then embraced them as he campaigned for the Republican presidential nomination.

"John McCain likes to talk about fiscal responsibility, but there is no doubt that his proposals blow a hole through the budget," Obama said.

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 it's feet," McCain said in an interview aired Sunday 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.

McCain's plan cuts taxes across all income levels. It would cut taxes for those in the top 1 percent by more than $125,000, raising their after-tax income an average 9.5 percent, the center concluded.

Warning of US Troop Pullout

By LOLITA C. BALDOR, Associated Press Writer Wed Sep 10, 12:41 PM ET

WASHINGTON - Improved security in Iraq will give the U.S. military flexibility to do more in Afghanistan in coming months, Defense Secretary Robert Gates told Congress Wednesday, after years of setting a lower priority for the Afghan fight.

But even as Gates hinted at possible further troop cuts in Iraq, he said a go-slow approach is justified by several worrisome circumstances, including slow progress on the political front.

"I worry that the great progress our troops and the Iraqis have made has the potential to override a measure of caution born of uncertainty," Gates told the House Armed Services Committee. "Our military commanders do not yet believe our gains are necessarily enduring — and they believe that there are still many challenges and the potential for reversals in the future."

Gates also warned that "we should expect to be involved in Iraq for years to come, although in changing and increasingly limited ways."

The Defense secretary said sectarian tensions still exist in Iraq and have the potential to undo recent security progress.

He was testifying one day after President Bush announced that he has approved a plan to withdraw about 8,000 U.S. troops by February. Some troops will leave this fall, but the number of combat brigades in Iraq will remain at the current 15 until late January or early February.

Both Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, described a new emphasis on Afghanistan, included a greater push to improve the Afghan security forces, and increased pressure on Pakistan to work with Kabul to quell insurgents crossing the border.

Mullen told the panel that while he is not convinced the coalition is winning in Afghanistan, "I am convinced we can."

Under the Pentagon plan Bush approved, one Marine battalion will be sent to Afghanistan in November to replace two that are scheduled to leave, and an Army brigade will deploy to Afghanistan in January, increasing slightly the troop levels there in the coming months.

Rep. Ike Skelton, a Missouri Democrat who chairs the committee, pressed Gates and Mullen on whether the Pentagon is ready to change its repeated assertion that it does what it can in Afghanistan, and does what it must in Iraq — to reflect a new priority for the Afghan fight.

Gates responded that the Afghan fight is more complex, because there are more diverse enemies as well as a broader, more complex coalition fighting them.

"I would say we are reducing our commitments in Iraq and we are increasing our commitments in Afghanistan," he said.

Neither Gates nor Mullen would detail how many more troops can be sent to Afghanistan next year beyond the announced Marine battalion and Army brigade, or how quickly. But they acknowledged that those two units will not meet the requirements voiced repeatedly by commanders in Afghanistan — who have said they need as many as three additional combat brigades, or roughly equal to 10,000 more troops.

"It's going to be a while before we get them there," said Mullen.

Mullen, meanwhile, said it is critical that other federal agencies provide much needed additional civilian support in Afghanistan, including for provincial reconstruction teams. Defense leaders made similar arguments in the past for the teams in Iraq — urgently pressing for representatives from the Agriculture, Commerce and Justice departments to help with the reconstruction and economic rebuilding.

Without a broad interagency approach, Mullen warned, "No amount of troops in no amount of time can ever achieve all the objectives we seek. And frankly we are running out of time."

Requests for interagency assistance have often proved difficult to fill.

Panel members pressed Gates and Mullen on whether the latest troop changes may tie the hands of the next commander in chief. Both said no.

The next president, said Gates, will have complete flexibility and be "constrained only by his view of our national security interests." He added that he hopes the next administration will listen to the advice of its military leaders.