STEVE LIESMAN, CNBC: You've said a bunch of times that getting the wealthy to pay a little bit more, and you've succeeded in raising that top tax rate to 39% or rolling back the tax cuts. Is there a limit there? Is there a limit to how much you believe the government should take from an individual in terms of a top tax rate?



PRESIDENT OBAMA: You know, I don't have a particular number in mind, but if you look at our history we are still well below what, you know, the marginal tax rates were under Dwight Eisenhower or, you know, all the way up even through Ronald Reagan. Tax rates are still lower on average for most folks. And what that means is that we probably can make some more headway in closing loopholes that folks take advantage of. As opposed to necessarily raising marginal rates. And I'll, you know, an obvious example is carried interest. I've talked about this before. You know, I've got friends of mine who are hedge fund managers and they don't always like to hear it. But some I think will readily acknowledge if you are making a billion dollars a year and you're paying 15% on that billion dollars when your secretary's paying 20%, 23%, you know, that's not fair. And if we close some of those loopholes, not just carried interest, but a range that we know are not economically productive, then sure, some folks don't get to take advantage of stuff they should've been taking advantage of anyway. But that also means we can finance government, keep our deficits under control, and invest in the things that we need to grow over the long term.