Pinheads and Patriots by Bill O'Reilly Page A

I believe is, is that there are certain things we have got to do. And we have got to help people who are…who have a tough time affording college, so they can benefit like we have. People are having a tough time. They don’t have health care. People who are trying to figure out, uh, how they are going to pay the bills. And there are certain things we have got to do. Our infrastructure—you—look at what happened in Beijing. You go to the Olympics, and these folks are building. And we have got, uh, sewer lines that are crumbling—
    O’Reilly: And—
    Obama: And, and, and at, and at a certain point, we have got to pay for it. Now, I, I am not—I, I, I—
    O’Reilly: But it is only the very few that are gonna pay for it, okay?
    Obama: Right.
    O’Reilly: You are, you are not across-the-boarding it. You are going—
    Obama: But, but Bill—
    O’Reilly: “I am taking from the rich.”
    Obama: [ Laughs. ]
    O’Reilly: “And I am Robin Hood Obama—”
    Obama: Bill, if, if, if—
    O’Reilly: “—and I am giving it—”
    Obama: All, all, all I am saying is—
    O’Reilly: And then you want to raise corporate taxes—
    Obama: All I, all I want—no, I don’t. That’s not true.
    O’Reilly: You want—
    Obama: All, all, all I want—
    O’Reilly: You don’t want to raise them? You don’t want to raise corporate taxes?
    Obama: All, all I want—all I am saying is—all I am saying is, is that, if we have got something that we have got to pay for—Now, George Bush—under George Bush, the, the debt has gone up $4 trillion, all right? So that’s the credit card we have taken out—on our kids—from the Bank of China—that they are gonna have to pay for—
    O’Reilly: The war on terror, though. Come on.
    Obama: Well, no, no, no. That, that—that’s not true. Uh, the, uh…that has to do—in part—with the Bush tax cuts, and no cuts in spending.
    O’Reilly: No, it can’t be, because the Bush tax cuts—
    Obama: So—
    O’Reilly: —generated more income.
    Obama: No. No, no, no.
    O’Reilly: The spending is out of control.
    Obama: No. Well, uh, look, uh…. The Bush tax—or the, the Bush record—the numbers are—were there. Four trillion dollars. Now, we have got a choice. We can keep on just borrowing and dump it on our kids, that’s option number one.
    O’Reilly: Or we can take it from the wealthy, and give it to everybody else—
    Obama: Bill, we could have an across-the-board tax cut—uh, or tax, uh, hikes, what you just talked about.
    O’Reilly: Which is not “income redistribution”?
    Obama: Bill, but the problem is, if I am sitting pretty, and you have got a waitress who is making minimum wage plus tips—and I can afford it and she can’t—what’s the big deal for me to say, “I am gonna pay a little bit more”? That is part of community—
    O’Reilly: Let me answer your question.
    Obama: That is part of what the—America has always been about is, is that we rise and fall together. And that, I think—
    O’Reilly: And Americans give a tremendous amount—more than any in the world—to charity.
    Obama: But—
    O’Reilly: Let me give you one more— Obama: All right.
    O’Reilly: —and then we’ll go on to, uh—
    Obama: Right.
    O’Reilly: —the next thing. Listen, if you raise the cap gains tax, that’s going to inhibit investment. I won’t buy as many stocks, and many many more people won’t, okay?
    Obama: If, if what—
    O’Reilly: If you do that—
    Obama: If we, if we went up, if we went up—
    O’Reilly: —it’s gonna, it’s gonna come back to bite you, Senator.
    Obama: If, if we went up to a prohibitive rate—you are right. But look, I—
    O’Reilly: