Facetime with Barack Obama

In conversations with Maria Bartiromo, the Presidential hopeful talks about his plans for taxes and charges that he lacks experience

by Maria Bartiromo

Senator Barack Obama during a campaign event at the Gamesa manufacturing facility in Fairless Hills, Pa. Jeff Zelevansky/Corbis

Barack Obama is arguably the most sought-after person in America—with the possible exceptions of soccer star David Beckham and Kristen, the call girl in the Eliot Spitzer scandal. So trying to secure an interview on the economy with the senator is about as easy as getting 15 minutes with Alexander Hamilton. Finally on Mar. 27, after Obama delivered an address on the economy in New York, I sat down with him and asked him to plug some specifics into his grand plans for change. Then we talked further by phone on Apr. 2. What appears below is an edited version of both those discussions, including portions of the initial interview that aired on CNBC. Since we first talked, the calls for Senator Hillary Clinton to stand aside and cede the nomination to Obama have grown louder. But as of press time on Apr. 2, the bruising contest showed no signs of ending.

MARIA BARTIROMO
Critics might say we're in dicey economic times. We need a President who is going to hit the ground running. How are you going to convince critics who say you lack the experience of some of your colleagues on the campaign trail?

BARACK OBAMA
Look, there are only three candidates left: myself, Senator Clinton, and Senator [John] McCain. None of us has run a business or been President. And so when it comes to economics, the experience all three of us have must be assumed from our policies and the people we have around us. And if you look at some of the people who support me, whether it's Paul Volcker or Warren Buffett, these are not people who would support [me if they didn't think I] had what it will take to manage this economy. And when you look at my approach to the economy and how I've talked about it over the course of not just the past year but since I've been in public office, you'll see that I've been ahead of the curve. I gave a speech in September warning that the problems that we were seeing on Main Street were going to have an impact on Wall Street.

How high will you raise the 15% capital-gains rate?
I haven't given a firm number. Here's my belief, though: We can't go back to some of the confiscatory rates in the past that distorted sound economics. And I certainly would not go above what existed under Bill Clinton, which was 28%. It would be significantly lower than that. But I think we can have a capital-gains rate that is higher than 15%. When I talk to people like Warren Buffett or others and ask them how much of a difference a 20% or 25% [rate is going to make], they say: "Look, if it's within that range, then it's not going to distort economic decision-making."

But it's not just the Warren Buffetts of the world who own stocks. Let's say the cap-gains tax goes from 15% to 25%. That will have an impact on a lot of people.
That's why I think that maybe you could structure something in which people with certain incomes would stay at 15%. The broader principle is making sure we've got a tax code that is fair for all Americans. It is not unreasonable to say that those of us in the upper brackets have benefited disproportionately from a globalized economy and those benefits have been compounded by the Bush tax cuts. We can take a look and see how we can exempt people who own stock through 401(k)s or pension funds while still making sure that those who have been the primary beneficiaries of economic growth over the last decade and have seen their incomes skyrocket are paying a fair share. What we're talking about is going back to the tax structure during the '90s. Rich people were still rich. But we had a more balanced budget and as a consequence could sustain economic growth. For us to roll back some of those tax cuts and put this economy on a more stable fiscal footing…that is actually good long term for our economy, for investors, and Wall Street.