Obama walks out of tense US debt meeting - aide

WASHINGTON, July 13 | Wed Jul 13, 2011 7:09pm EDT

WASHINGTON, July 13 (Reuters) - President Barack Obama abruptly ended a tense budget meeting on Wednesday with U.S. Republican leaders by walking out of the room, a Republican aide familiar with the talks said.

The aide said the session, the fourth in a row, was the most tense of the week as House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner, the top Republican in Congress, dismissed spending cuts offered by the White House as "gimmicks and accounting tricks."

(Reporting by Andy Sullivan; Editing by Will Dunham)

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Comments (14)
azbabe wrote:
Since the rich do not pay taxes it seems only fair that they make changes to the tax laws to include them. The poor and the middle class can not get away without paying taxes and the rich shouldn’t either

Jul 13, 2011 8:07pm EDT  --  Report as abuse
SanPa wrote:
I personally paid more federal tax dollars in 2010 than GE, Forest Labs, and Fox / News Corp combined. Rupert Murdoch, Warren Buffet, and others pay a lower percentage of their income toward federal tax than I. Apparently, I don’t earn enough money to get a break on my taxes.

Jul 13, 2011 12:19am EDT  --  Report as abuse
Randy549 wrote:
@SanPa: The companies you mention could be deducting losses and other credits from prior years against their 2010 income. (It’s legal for you to do that also, by the way.) If a company earns US-based profits year after year and still pays no US federal tax, that’s definitely wrong, no question about it. Without knowing the details it’s hard to judge.

The Rupert Murdoch / Warren Buffet assertion is interesting, and if true, does seem absolutely unfair and in need of fixing. Could you post some references to support it? I’d be interested in learning more about how exactly they are able to do this, if true. Of course, the comparison should be apples-to-apples to be fair…for example, comparing current income to current income, not current income to deferred future income.

Jul 13, 2011 12:37am EDT  --  Report as abuse
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