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From President Obama, asked about John Boehner’s deficit proposal yesterday:
He talks, for example, about $800 billion worth of revenues, but he says he’s going to do that by lowering rates. And when you look at the math, it doesn’t work….If we’re going to raise revenues that are sufficient to balance with the very tough cuts that we’ve already made, and the further reforms in entitlements that I’m prepared to make, we’re going to have to see the rates on the top two percent go up. And we’re not going to be able to get a deal without it.
Well, that’s pretty definitive. Obama didn’t explicitly say that rates had to go all the way back up to pre-Bush levels, so there’s still a bit of wiggle room here. But not much.
