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The AP reports:
CLEVELAND (AP) — President Barack Obama strongly defended his opposition to extending Bush-era tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans on Wednesday and delivered a searing attack on Republicans and their House leader for advocating “the same philosophy that led to this mess in the first place.”
Obama said the struggling U.S. economy can’t afford to spend $700 billion to keep lower tax rates in place for the nation’s highest earners despite a call by House Minority Leader John Boehner and other GOP leaders to do just that.
Speaking in the same city where Boehner, an Ohio Republican, recently ridiculed Obama’s economic stewardship, Obama said Boehner’s policies amount to no more than “cut more taxes for millionaires and cut more rules for corporations.”
Obama’s comments came as the administration rolled out new proposals designed to re-ignite a sputtering recovery, including new tax breaks for businesses and $50 billion for U.S. roads, rails and airports.
“Let me be clear to Mr. Boehner and everyone else. We should not hold middle class tax cuts hostage any longer,” the president said. The administration “is ready this week to give tax cuts to every American making $250,000 or less,” he said.
Actually, Obama and other Democratic leaders want to extend the tax cuts except for individuals making over $200,000 a year – or families earning over $250,000. The sweeping series of Bush tax cuts expires at the end of this year unless Congress renews them.
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balconesfault // Sep 9, 2010 at 4:19 am
From the article:
The president’s strategy – pushing for legislation to save some tax cuts but not all – carries its own risks. Since all the tax breaks would expire automatically at the end of the year if Congress failed to act, that could result in sweeping increases for taxpayers at every income level – a major blow to recovery hopes and a colossal dose of blame for voters to parcel out to lawmakers and the White House.
Since this puts Obama in the position of calling on Congress to extend the tax cut for middle income taxpayers – and Republicans and Blue Dog Dems in the position of rejecting that extension – Obama ends up being well positioned when the new Congressional session begins. He is the defender of the middle class, and the GOP is the defender of the wealthy.
I expect that if the GOP decides to give him this high ground, he’ll be shelling them from it for the rest of the next two years.