According the People’s World, President Obama is calling for a tax hike for the rich. The President’s plan appears to be in contrast with the Republican budget cut proposals. Today’s rollout included a framework that the President said would reduce the deficit and save Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security $4 trillion by removing tax cuts for the rich.
Obama’s nationally televised speech emphasized that he would not renew Bush’s tax cuts for the rich, or 2 percent of Americans making $250,000 or more. The plan intends to protect the middle class and preserve and protect seniors who have worked hard all of their lives.
Republican Paul Ryan criticized the plan and said Obama’s proposal contradicts the GOP’s reform ideas on the table. The President said Ryan’s plan was not a budget deficit reduction but about extinguishing the long cherished social compact in America. Obama vowed to reject Ryan’s plan as long as he is president.
Obama noted that Social Security does not contribute to the nation’s deficit and that it had to be strengthened, not reduced in services. Obama again called on Ryan’s plan as a way of saying we cannot afford to keep promises to seniors, the poor and the sick, but we can afford to give millionaires and billionaires tax cuts.
Obama’s framework calls for a debt failsafe to kick in by 2014, which would trigger across the board spending reductions except for Social Security and programs benefiting the poor. About $1 trillion would come from tax increases to the rich while $3 trillion would come from various spending cuts.
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