Jim Webb: “I would like to take some time at this point to talk about some events in Asia. I think we all need to be paying very…”

“I would like to take some time at this point to talk about some events in Asia. I think we all need to be paying very close attention to them. Before I do that, I would like to clarify my position on the vote we are going to be taking this afternoon. First, I wish to emphasize that I agree with all those comments that have been made by my Democratic colleagues about needing to keep these tax cuts in place for our lower income workers, our middle class; I just happen to believe we need to keep them in place for everyone who is making their income through what we call ordinary earned income. Earned income, ordinary earned income, is the strongest indicator that a person in this country is actually accumulating wealth, which is the American dream, and it is not necessarily that you have wealth-- whatever the amount may happen to be. Passive income, which is income from capital gains, such as investment in stocks or dividends, is one of the best indicators that you actually have accumulated a certain amount of wealth--you have enough money to set aside and invest it. So my long belief has been that if we are going to raise taxes on income, in addition to these other things we have been talking about with respect to tax loopholes and subsidies and those sorts of things, we really ought to be doing so in the fairest place, and the fairest place is from passive income, not ordinary earned income. I have said since the day I announced for the U.S.…”