President Obama urges Congress pass Buffett Rule
Stressing fairness and the need to grow the economy by prioritizing investments, President Obama used this week's address to urge that Congress pass the Buffett Rule. Congress is set to vote on it this week. The President describes the Buffett Rule as follows:"It's simple: If you make more than $1 million every year, you should pay at least the same percentage of your income in taxes as middle-class families do. On the other hand, if you make less than $250,000 a year -- like 98% of American families do -- your taxes shouldn't go up."President Obama argued against expected attacks that the Buffett Rule is nothing more than a tax increase, responding that he has lowered taxes for middle-class families every year that he has been in office, as well as cut taxes for small-business owners 17 times. However, the President argued that tax cuts for the wealthy have not delivered as promised:
"But the thing is, for most Americans like me, tax rates are near their lowest point in 50 years. In 2001 and 2003, the wealthiest Americans received two huge new tax cuts. We were told these tax cuts would lead to faster job growth. Instead we got the slowest job growth in half a century, and the typical American family actually saw its income fall. On the flip side, when the most well-off Americans were asked to pay a little more in the 1990s, we were warned that it would kill jobs. Instead, tens of millions of jobs followed. So we've tried this trickle-down experiment before. It doesn't work. And middle class families have seen too much of their security eroded over the past few decades for us to tell them they're going to have to do more because the wealthiest Americans are going to do less. We can't stop investing in the things that will help grow our economy and create jobs -- things like education, research, new sources of energy -- just so folks like me can get another tax cut."President Obama urged that viewers tell their representatives to pass the Buffett Rule. President Obama's Weekly Address:
