President Barack Obama will call for a one-year extension of Bush-era tax cuts for families earning less than $250,000 a year, according to a White House official, seeking to spare the economy the impact of taxes going up on January 1.
Obama, a Democrat, will make the request in a 11:50 a.m. statement at the White House on Monday.
Republicans in Congress are unlikely to be swayed, as they have consistently argued that the Bush tax cuts should be extended for everyone, including higher earners.
Obama has pushed what he calls “tax fairness” in his campaign for re-election on November 6, repeatedly urging Congress to make the tax cuts permanent for families making less than $250,000 a year. His Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, has suggested Congress wait to act until January, when he hopes to take office.
The tax cuts enacted by Obama’s Republican predecessor, George W. Bush, will expire on January 1 without congressional action, part of a so-called fiscal cliff that could hit the U.S. economy alongside deep automatic spending cuts.
Analysts warn the impact of rising taxes and lower federal spending could tip the economy back into recession.
Robert Gibbs, a senior adviser to Obama’s campaign, defended the proposed extension on Monday as a way to help boost middle-income Americans and propel the U.S. economy.
“We have to continue to grow our economy – we need to grow it from the middle class out,” he told NBC’s “Today” show.
“Millionaires and billionaires – they don’t need a tax cut. They’re not struggling in this economy. They’ve done well even as the middle class has shrunk,” he added.
The president’s proposal comes as lawmakers return from a weeklong recess.
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4 Responses
Which creates a substantial “marriage penalty” since in a “modern” couple (hint: most yeshiva couples are “modern” in that the wife often brings a significant income relative to the husband), the higher tax rates kick in at $125000, whereas for single it doesn’t kick in until $200,000.
It’s a problem since many if not most of the “high income” taxpayers are self-employed owners of small businesses, and what is being taxed is the business’s operating profit rather than income available for the individual.
Bu then, the Democrats have never been sympathetic to the middle class, so there is no “hidush” in all this.
Rich people are already paying far more than their fair share of the tax burden; it’s not fair to increase their taxes further. It’s taxation without representation, since almost everybody who is voting on the increase won’t be subject to it. If all Americans voted to impose a special tax increase on those over 6 feet tall, or on people of Chinese ancestry, there would be outrage; why is it different when they vote to impose it on rich people? It’s pure robbery.
They don’t consider it robbery when the government does it. You and I, on the other hand, would be locked up.
obama is a BIG BIG THIEF. he wants a one year extension to get re-elected and he then will sock it to the tax payers. I don’t know how anybody who is working can vote for the crook