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This is a rush transcript from "On the Record," August 3, 2009. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
GRETA VAN SUSTEREN FOX NEWS HOST: Tonight: Will President Obama raise taxes on the middle class? Now, that depends on who you ask. President Obama says no.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I can make a firm pledge. Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year...
-- which includes a 98 percent of small-business owners, you will not see your taxes increase one single dime under my plan.
Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains tax, no tax. We don't need to raise taxes on the middle class!
You will not see your taxes increased a single dime. I repeat, not one single dime.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAN SUSTEREN: Well, that was the president, and over the weekend, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner was far less concrete.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, HOST, ABC'S "THIS WEEK": The president has said that taxes won't go up for any Americans earning under $250,000, but it doesn't appear he's going to be able to keep that promise if you're going to bring the deficit down.
TIMOTHY GEITHNER, TREASURY SECRETARY: George, again, we can't make these judgments yet about exactly what it's going to take and how we're going to get there. But the very important thing is -- and no one is going to care about this more than the president of the United States -- is for people to understand that we do not have a choice in the country...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAN SUSTEREN: White House economic adviser Larry Summers was asked about Secretary Geithner's comment. Does Summers think a new round of taxes is coming for middle-class Americans?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LARRY SUMMERS, WHITE HOUSE ECONOMIC ADVISER: There's a lot that can happen over time, but the priority right now -- so its never a good idea to absolutely rule things -- rule things out, no matter what.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAN SUSTEREN: Today, press secretary Robert Gibbs tried to clear up the confusion.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERT GIBBS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Let me be precise. The president's clear commitment is not to raise taxes on those making less than $250,000 a year.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAN SUSTEREN: So is the middle class going to get a tax hike or not? Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee joins us live. Good evening, Governor. And Governor, it seems that the president and his press secretary say no to taxes on the middle class, but then just yesterday, two of his cabinet secretaries are saying -- are suggesting something very different. So any idea what's going on?
MIKE HUCKABEE, HOST, "HUCKABEE": Well, Robert Gibbs had to dive on that grenade today because it was going off. And Summers and Geithner did the unthinkable. They spoke the truth. They said what everybody with a brain understands. You can't keep spending money like this and run up these deficits without at some point having to pay for it.
Tax revenues are down. The economy is hurting. People don't have jobs. When they don't have a job, they're not paying taxes. And at some point, the president is stuck with either having to do what he's been doing a lot lately, and that's breaking promises, or he's going to have to continue to tank the U.S. economy.
Now, what I think he ought to do is to start looking at ways, rather than buying everybody a car, is suspending the payroll tax for a particular period of time and putting that money into the hands of consumers so they can make the decision. That would make a lot more sense.
VAN SUSTEREN: Well, the Associated Press is reporting that we are in the biggest tax revenue drop since 1932, that individual income tax receipts, how the government feeds itself, essentially down 22 percent. Corporate income taxes down 57 percent. And we're spending like drunken sailors. That's not a very good recipe.
HUCKABEE: Well, I think it's a real insult to the drunken sailors. They don't spend more than they have in their pocket. And they don't spend out to, you know, their next 20 paychecks. We're spending out into the next millennium. And even the health care proposal -- when you hear how much this is going to cost, what they're not telling you is that the real cost factors come in years 11 through 20, not years 1 through 10. So the deficits are piling up, and Barack Obama's answer to that is, Let's pull out our wallets and spend some more money (INAUDIBLE) let's pull out the wallets of American taxpayers and spend some more money.
VAN SUSTEREN: What do you think the discussion's been in the last 24 hours here in Washington between the White House and Treasury secretary and Larry Summers?
HUCKABEE: My guess is that there was some woodshedding going on, just realizing that this really erupted in a very unpleasant way. All these members of Congress going home to recess, every time they show up at a town meeting, they're getting an earful. It's almost like they forgot who they worked for. They don't work for Nancy Pelosi. They don't work for Harry Reid. And they don't work for Barack Obama. They work for the American taxpayer, and the taxpayers are infuriated because they have enough sense to know that this spend-a-holism that we have seen is simply not working out. More Americans out of jobs. And Greta, at some point, if you're really strapped for cash, the first thing you do is you stop spending what you don't have.
VAN SUSTEREN: Well, what people don't realize, too, is that if we -- if we end up having to print more money, we're going to get a -- we're going to get an inflation. And some people think, Well, as long as I'm working, my wages are going to go up with the inflationary prices. The problem is, is that now that we're part of a global economy, is the rest of the world's not going to want to buy our prices at these -- buy our goods at these higher prices. So it's a much more serious problem, inflation, than even 25, 30 years ago when we had inflation.
HUCKABEE: It's a huge problem. You just mentioned that people don't want to buy our debts. We have pretty amazing things, the Chinese talking about a new monetary standard and not the U.S. dollar. These are unprecedented kinds of conversations taking place because people simply don't have confidence. Geithner went to Asia, tried to tell them that everything is fine, and they literally laughed at him when he tried to tell them that everything was just great with the American economy. That's a horrible situation for us.
VAN SUSTEREN: Governor, thank you. And don't forget to watch the governor every Saturday and Sunday night at 8:00 PM Eastern. And guess what the name of the show is? "Huckabee." I don't know how he got that name.
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