President Obama is urging
Congress to compromise on cutting taxes - by doing it his way.
In his weekly radio address this morning, the president noted that both Democrats and
Republicans want to prevent taxes from rising on income below $250,000, even for those earning far more.
That's all Democrats want - holding the line on middle-income taxpayers, while letting taxes rise for anyone earning more than $250,000. So under this "compromise," Obama wouldn't have to give up anything.
Republicans, however, want to keep everyone's taxes at the current rates established under
George W. Bush in 2001. Obama wants to raise taxes on the rich.
"The only place we disagree is whether we keep giving tax cuts to the wealthiest 2% of Americans. Republicans in
Washington want more of those tax cuts. With the deficit we have, I don't think we can afford them," Obama said.
"But even if we disagree on the tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, we all agree that no American should pay more taxes on the first $250,000 of their income. So let's at least agree to do what we all agree on. That's what compromise is all about."
Here's the president's full address:
Over the past couple weeks I've been talking with folks across the country about how we're going to rebuild an economy where if you work hard, you and your family can get ahead.
And right now, there's a big debate going on in Washington over two fundamentally different paths we can take as a country to do that.
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