President Obama State of the Union address promises to raise taxes on rich, spend more
Poised to battle Republicans in Congress, President Obama will begin 2015 with a State of the Union address which announces a call for increased spending and raising taxes on the country’s top earners.
“Obama will call on Congress to join him in enacting new initiatives to make community college free and to enhance tax credits for education and child care, financed by new taxes and fees on high-income earners and large financial institutions,” notes the NY Times on Tuesday.
FULL TRANSCRIPT OF SPEECH – HERE
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“Our job now is to make sure that every American feels that they’re a part of our country’s comeback. That’s what I’ll focus on in my State of the Union – how to build on our momentum, with rising wages, growing incomes, and a stronger middle class. And I’ll call on this new Congress to join me in putting aside the political games and finding areas where we agree so we can deliver for the American people,” the President said on Saturday during a weekly address.
Obama will propose a new tax plan that will raise taxes on the rich and use the money to fund his free community college program and new tax breaks for the middle class. Republicans are not pleased. “The tax hike shows little understanding of where to find common ground with Republicans,” wrote Brendan Buck, the communications director for the House Ways and Means Committee.
“Surely the White House knows a massive tax increase is not what the American people just sent a newly elected Republican Congress to do.”
The New Republic summarizes another proposal: “Obama wants to impose a 0.07 percent tax on liabilities of banks with greater than $50 billion in assets. It’s similar to the bank tax that former House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp put forward in his tax reform plan last year. Instead of taxing bank assets, as Camp’s plan does, Obama’s plan would tax bank liabilities.”
Another prong of Obama’s tax reform plan is to increase taxes on capital gains directly, to 28 percent from 20 percent.
On the free community college initiative Newsweek writes: “Obama will want to hammer home the statistics surrounding community college to link the issues in voters’ minds. One such number: The average gap between a community college student’s financial assistance and the amount of money he or she actually needs to complete a semester of school is $6,000, according to Duke-Benfield. Also, 27 percent of college students work part time, and another 39 percent work full time—and research shows that working more than 20 hours per week has negative impacts on academic performance.”
President Obama’s Sat, Jan. 17 remarks HERE
