CHUCK TODD: Scott Ferguson—he’s upset about taxes. He says, "Explain how raising taxes on anyone during a deep recession is going to help the economy." And he actually wants you to look at historical markers where this has been, you say, where this has been a helpful thing in getting out of a recession.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, first of all, he’s right. Normally you don’t raise taxes during a recession, which is why we haven’t and why we’ve instead cut taxes. So I guess what I’d say to Scott is: his economics are right. You don’t raise taxes in a recession. We haven’t—
TODD: But you might for health care, for some of the wealthiest.
OBAMA: We have not proposed a tax hike for the wealthy that would take effect in the middle of a recession. Even the proposals that have come out of Congress—which by the way, were different from the proposals I put forward—still wouldn’t kick in until after the recession was over. So, he’s absolutely right. The last thing you want to do is to raise taxes in the middle of a recession, because that would just suck up—take more demand out of the economy and put businesses in a further hole.