President: House GOP asks more of middle class

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama said Saturday that Republicans in the House are blocking a bill that would prevent a tax increase on the first $250,000 of income earned by all Americans.

The Democratic-controlled Senate has approved the measure, but Obama said House Republicans have “put forward an unbalanced plan that actually lowers rates for the wealthiest Americans.”

Obama supports a plan to raise taxes on families earning more than $250,000.

In his weekly radio and Internet address, Obama said “the math just doesn’t work” on the GOP plan.

Obama’s comments mark the fourth time since his re-election that he has used the radio address to push for middle-class tax cuts as part of a plan to avert a looming fiscal cliff — and his most sharply partisan tone.

Obama said his plan to raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans should come as no surprise to Republicans or anyone else.

“After all, this was a central question in the election. A clear majority of Americans — Democrats, Republicans and independents — agreed with a balanced approach that asks something from everyone, but a little more from those who can most afford it,” Obama said.

His plan is “the only way to put our economy on a sustainable path without asking even more from the middle class,” Obama said. It also is the only plan he is willing to sign, the president said.

Obama’s comments came as House Speaker John Boehner said Friday there has been no progress in negotiations to avert the “fiscal cliff,” a combination of automatic tax increases and spending cuts set to take effect in January.

Boehner said the White House has wasted another week and has failed to respond to a GOP offer to raise tax revenues and cut spending. Obama and Boehner spoke privately by phone on Wednesday. Boehner described the conversation as pleasant, “but just more of the same.”

Obama said in his address that he stands ready to work with Republicans on a plan that spurs economic growth, creates jobs and reduces the national deficit. He said he wants to find ways to bring down health care costs without hurting seniors and is willing to make more cuts in entitlement programs such as Medicare.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio said in the Republican response Saturday that tax increases will not solve the nation’s $16 trillion debt. Only economic growth and reform of entitlement programs will help control the debt, Rubio said.

ä On the internet:

Obama address: www.whitehouse.gov

GOP address: www.youtube.com/gopweeklyaddress

Comments

1) Comment by nimby? - 09/12/2012

continue to heap tax on those with means , they'll leave . they'll leave the city , parish/county , state ,. country . they'll take their money , businesses , and jobs with them . some will make necessary moves in order to stay open . some will find it easier to simply close their businesses and retire .

2) Comment by Loki - 09/12/2012

What, 1.3 Trillion in deficit reduction vs. the GOP's 300 billion it thinks it can get from kicking the middle class in various places?

3) Comment by Whatnow - 09/12/2012

Gee, why doesn't the AP tell the whole story? Why don't they tell what Obama is asking for?

4) Comment by agagent - 09/12/2012

Obama said he had to spend to get us out of the recession. If that were true Obama could have stopped the spending after the recession ended in June, 2009. It was not true and, he has not stop spending. The national debt is over $16.3 trillion, and the federal government will soon reach the debt ceiling. Obama’s demands include taxes on the rich, billions more in another stimulus, complete authority to raise the debt ceiling, claims of fake cuts, and addressing entitlement reform later. Even the Democrats in the Senate won’t go close to that proposal.

5) Comment by Loki - 09/12/2012

Oh, and then we have Jindal saying that the way to prevent us from going over the fiscal cliff is to make the austerity twice as bad through a balanced budget amendment. These are the people who want to reform education.

6) Comment by Loki - 09/12/2012

No Bighug, it is correct. Republicans refuse to prevent raising taxes on the first $250,000. Their position is that tax increases must hit the middle class if they hit anyone. It is clear that they do not understand our situation with regard to demand and promoting growth of the economy.

7) Comment by agagent - 09/12/2012

The federal government is spending too much already. It spends more than 24% of GDP while historically government spent about 18 to 19%. Including state and local all governments the spending is equivalent to about 38% of GDP. Our struggling economy cannot sustain more taxes. More taxes will give us more government spending and a bigger government, not deficit reduction. Growing government weakens the private sector and free enterprise. The revenue raised by this Obama tax will give the federal government enough money to fund 8.5 days of spending. This equal to about 1.44% of Obama’s spending problem. Obama wants to spend the money on more bailouts to unions and city and state governments, more corruption like Solyndra, and more government bureaucracy like in Obamacare.

8) Comment by agagent - 09/12/2012

Here is how "taxing the rich" lowered California's revenues: "California State Controller John Chiang has announced that total state revenue for the month of November 2012 fell $806.8 million, or 10.8%, below budget. Democrats thought they could hammer “the rich” by convincing voters to pass Proposition 30 to create the highest state income tax in the nation. But it now appears that high income earners have already “voted with their feet” by moving themselves and their businesses out of state, resulting in over $1 billion shortfall in corporate and income taxes last month and the beginning of a new financial crisis."--Brietbart

9) Comment by slye753 - 09/12/2012

Obama--divide and conquer. But where are the cuts?

10) Comment by Bighug - 09/12/2012

The first sentence doesn't make sense. Shouldn't that read "over" instead of the "first" $250,000? Increased tax on the first $250,000 would impact the middle class.