President Obama on Wednesday called for an end to the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy, saying the country cannot afford $700 billion in tax breaks that benefit “millionaires and billionaires.”
Unveiling his economic agenda for the fall campaign in a lengthy and sharply populist speech that sought to appeal to the middle class, Mr. Obama also urged voters not to allow Republicans to “ride” fears about the economy into the election booths in the midterm elections in November.
Mr. Obama acknowledged that “people are frustrated and angry and anxious about the future.” But he argued that a Republican return to power would lead to a repeat of failed policies of the past.
“A lot has changed since I came here in those final days of the last election,” Mr. Obama told a largely sympathetic crowd of around 3,000 at the Cuyahoga Community College campus in Parma, a Cleveland suburb. “But what hasn’t is the choice facing this country. It’s still fear versus hope; the past versus the future. It’s still a choice between sliding backward and moving forward.”
Mr. Obama repeated a theme he has been sounding all summer: the economy performed better during the Clinton administration — before the Bush tax cuts went into effect — than it did afterward.
“For those who claim that this is bad for growth and bad for small businesses, let me remind you that with those tax rates in place, this country created 22 million jobs, raised incomes and had the largest surplus in history,” Mr. Obama said.
In keeping with his populist tone, and defending government programs, the president spoke of how his mother and grandparents had struggled to make ends meet. His family, he said, “believed in an America that gave my grandfather the chance to go to college because of the G.I. bill. An America that gave my grandparents the chance to buy a home because of the Federal Housing Authority. An America that gave their children and grandchildren the chance to fulfill our dreams thanks to college loans and college scholarships.”
By proposing to extend the Bush tax cuts for the 98 percent of households with income below $250,000 for couples, or $200,000 for individuals, and insisting that federal income tax rates in 2011 go to their pre-2001 levels for income above those cutoffs, Mr. Obama cast the election-year economic debate as a choice between supporting the middle class and giving breaks to the rich.
And by choosing this city, where just two weeks ago, Representative John A Boehner of Ohio, the House Republican Leader, unveiled the Republican economic message for the fall, Mr. Obama sought to differentiate his agenda sharply from his rivals.
At times during the president’s speech, it seemed as if he were running against Mr. Boehner. Seven times in his remarks, the president specifically cited the House Republican leader. Promoting his proposal for $180 billion in expanded business tax cuts and infrastructure spending, Mr. Obama said: “Despite the fact that this has traditionally been an issue with bipartisan support, Mr. Boehner has so far said no to infrastructure.”
The president said that his administration was ready to give tax cuts to “every American making $250,000 or less” as soon as this week. “Let me be clear to Mr. Boehner and everyone else,” Mr. Obama said, “we should not hold middle class tax cuts hostage any longer.” Mr. Boehner, for his part, was fast out of the gate on Wednesday, rebutting Mr. Obama’s proposals before he had made them. Appearing on “Good Morning America” on ABC, Mr. Boehner said that extending the income-tax cuts for wealthier taxpayers would give certainty to small businesses.
He called for a two-year freeze on all federal tax rates, and said that the government should cut its spending next year to 2008 levels. “What that will do is help small businesses who have no clue what the coming tax rates are going to be,” he said. “If we’re able to do this together, I think we’ll show the American people that we understand what’s going on in the country, and we’ll be able to get our economy moving again and get jobs growing in America.”
The two major pieces of Mr. Obama’s package — expanding and making permanent a popular credit for businesses’ research and experimentation expenses, and allowing them to write off the full value of new equipment purchases immediately in 2011 — have longstanding Republican and corporate support.
Mr. Obama is calculating that business groups will like the package so much that Republicans will feel they have to support it in Congress. In fact, Mr. Obama appeared to be setting up the debate in such a way that he can accuse Republicans of opposing it simply because he proposed it.
“Look, I recognize that most of the Republicans in Congress have said no to just about every policy I’ve proposed since taking office,” Mr. Obama said. “And on some issues, I realize it’s because there are genuine philosophical differences. But on issues like this one, the only reason they’re holding this up is politics, pure and simple.”
By nytimes.com
Tags: banks, economic growth, financial system, Global Economy, interest rates, loans, stock market, us economic
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