Barack Obama Proposes $1.5 Trillion in New Tax Revenues
Republicans: "This is class warfare."Barack Obama: "This is not class warfare - it's math."
President Barack Obama unofficially kicked off his 2012 re-election bid earlier today when he unveiled his $3 trillion long-term deficit reduction plan.
The core of the plan contains $1.5 trillion in new taxes. According to CBSnews.com:
"..about $800 billion comes from repealing the Bush-era tax rates for couples making more than $250,000. The plan also closes certain corporate tax loopholes and limits certain tax deductions." Obama is also proposing something called the "Buffett Rule", which would "compel" those who are making $1 million or more to pay the same tax rates as their middle-class countrymen.
President Obama has also gone on record as saying that he will veto any deficit reduction plan that solely relies on spending cuts.
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Republicans, as you can imagine, are not happy with the President's deficit reduction plan.
House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan said that Obama is in "political class warfare mode and campaign mode".
House Speaker John Boehner said that "tax increases destroy jobs" and that "pitting one group of Americans against another is not leadership."
Many Republicans have signed the "Taxpayer Protection Pledge", which states that:
"I, ____, pledge to the taxpayers of the (____ district of the) state of _____ that I will: ONE, oppose any and all efforts to increase the marginal income tax rate for individuals and business; and TWO, oppose any net reduction or elimination of deductions and credits, unless matched dollar for dollar by further reducing tax rates."
As we saw during the debt ceiling debate, Republicans are not willing to budget on the topics of new taxes because they believe that tax increases would make it harder for the economy to add jobs. The national unemployment rate is currently sitting at 9.1%.
Republicans have stated that Obama's deficit reduction plan is "dead".
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The battle lines have been drawn ahead of the 2012 Presidential election. It's going to be an interesting 13 1/2 months..
Source: CBSNews.com - Obama: "This is not class warfare - it's math"
Filed under: General Knowledge
