President Obama made an impassioned appeal to Republican lawmakers to support his latest deficit reduction plan, details of which had already been released to the press by the time he took the podium on Monday morning.
(Click here for the White House’s summary of the plan)
Speaking in the White House Rose Garden, the president said his proposal represents a balanced approach to reigning in the nation’s bloated debt level while at the same time providing a shot in the arm to a fledgling economy.
“It’s a plan,” he said, “that reduces our debt by more than four trillion dollars, and achieves these savings in a way that is fair, by asking everybody to do their part so that no one has to bear too much of the burden on their own.”
Obama added that the measure would fully offset his jobs bill, a $447 billion plan that includes a mix of tax cuts and tax credits and spending on public works projects.
Like everything these days, the biggest challenge for the president will be getting Congress to support the plan. Republicans, led by House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), have already drawn a line in the sand over tax increases, which happen to comprise $1.5 trillion of the total savings found within Obama’s measure.
In a statement put out on Sunday, Ryan called the plan an example of “class warfare” — referring to Obama’s idea to raise tax rates on those making more than $250,000 per year. The president’s plan also includes the so-called “Buffett rule,” a nod to billionaire investor Warren Buffett, who has come out in support of raising investment taxes on those making more than $1 million per year.
The president, in his remarks this morning, pushed back strongly against Ryan’s assertion.
“I reject the idea that asking a hedge fund manager to pay the same tax rate as a plumber or a teacher is class warfare,” he said. “I think it’s just the right thing to do.”
Republicans will also likely accuse Obama of using gimmicks, such as counting $1 trillion in new cuts from ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, to inflate total savings. However, as the Associated Press noted on Monday, Ryan included those future savings in his budget proposal earlier this year.