Well, here's what I think -- that people like myself, who can afford to pay a little bit more in taxes, should do so in order to help people who are desperate for a little bit of security when it comes to their health care. Now, I actually think that the best way to do that is simply to cap deductions that wealthy people can take at a 35- or a 36-percent rate, compared to ordinary folks who are only taking a 28-percent rate.
He took a slightly different tack in a July 27 interview with Business Week:
So far my only tax policy has been to cut taxes for 95% of working people. I haven't signed a bill that's raised taxes yet.
And another angle in a July 28 interview with Time:
And it's very hard, particularly when the figures get thrown out there — "This is going to cost $1 trillion" — even though it's $1 trillion over 10 years, even though we've identified $600 billion of the trillion dollars so that we're really talking about raising somewhere between $300 and $400 billion over 10 years, or $30 or $40 billion a year, which with very modest changes to the tax code could be easily paid for and would pay significant dividends. It's still — in people's minds it's just a big expensive thing that may end up resulting in me paying more taxes.
