New York (HedgeCo.net) – President Barack Obama, in his weekly address, suggested that hedge funds and oil companies should pick up the slack with a tax hike in order to cut the deficit. Obama’s proposal would raise hedge fund manager’s taxes by up to $21 billion, according to an estimation by MSNBC.

“If we choose to keep those tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires, or for hedge fund managers and corporate jet owners, or for oil and gas companies pulling in huge profits without our help – then we’ll have to make even deeper cuts somewhere else.” Obama said on Saturday.

“We’ve got to say to a student, ‘You don’t get a college scholarship.’ We have to say to a medical researcher, ‘You can’t do that cancer research.’ We might have to tell seniors, ‘You have to pay more for Medicare,'” Obama said. “We’ve got to cut the deficit, but we can do that while making investments in education, research and technology that actually create jobs.”

Obama’s tax increases include:

• End some tax credits for oil and gas companies
• Tax private equity or hedge fund managers income as earned rather than capital gains rates
• Limit itemized deductions for the nation’s highest earners
• Change the depreciation formula for corporate jets
• Repeal tax benefit for an inventory accounting practice used by many manufacturers

The White House estimates that the changes would raise $600 billion.

Alex Akesson
Editor for HedgeCo.net
alex@hedgeco.net
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