Obama meets with middle-class family on "fiscal cliff"

President Obama (R) speaks about extending middle class tax cuts and the fiscal cliff alongside Tiffany Santana (2nd R), Richard Santana (L), and Jimmie Massenburg (2nd L) at their home in Falls Church, Virginia, on December 6, 2012. Tiffany Santana, a high school English teacher, had previously contacted Obama about how an increase in her taxes would affect her family. / SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images

President Obama today sat down with a Virginia family who said that if the Bush-era tax rates aren't extended for the middle class, they'd have to give up the equivalent of a month's rent.

"They're keeping it together, they're working hard, they're meeting their responsibilities," Mr. Obama said, while sitting around the kitchen table with Tiffany Santana and her family in their Falls Church, Virginia home. "For them to be burdened unnecessarily because Democrats and Republicans aren't coming together to solve those problems gives you a sense of the costs on personal terms."

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Obama visits middle class home to push "fiscal cliff" proposal

Letting tax rates go up next year, the president said, would be "bad for our economy and it puts us back in a downward spiral." The expiration of the Bush-era tax rates are part of the so-called "fiscal cliff," a series of tax increases and spending cuts set to kick in next year that economists say would send the nation into another recession. While the president is negotiating with Republicans over an economic package to avert the "cliff," he's calling on Congress to start by extending the current tax rates for all income under $250,000.

The White House started a public campaign to press Congress on the issue, focusing on the fact that if the current tax rates expire, a typical middle class family of four would see its taxes rise by $2,200. Using the Twitter hashtag #my2k and other forms of social media, the White House urged middle-class Americans share what a tax increase would mean to them.

More 370,000 Americans responded, including Tiffany Santana, a high school English teacher. So Mr. Obama today visited Santana and her family. Santana lives with her seven-year-old son, her husband (who works at a local Toyota dealership), her mother (a child care provider), and her father (a postal worker).

"I think we're definitely a 21st century middle class family," Santana said in a video the White House produced. "Real everyday people know what $2,000 means to their lives... For me [it] would be paying a month's rent -- something very tangible, something that we need."

Mr. Obama said he remained "optimistic" that a deal is in the cards, but maintained that a "modest" rate increase on the top two percent must be part of the final equation.

"We're in the midst of the Christmas season, I think the American people are counting on this getting solved, the closer it gets to the brink the more stressed they're going to be," he said. "Businesses are making decisions right now about investments and hiring, and if they don't have confidence that we could get this thing done, then they're going to start pulling back and we could have a rocky time in our economy over the next several months or even next year."

[tsigili]

Maybe we should be questioning why their rent is $2k?

My own mortgage payment, is under $1100. on a 2300 sq. ft. home.

Let's get real, about these issues, and stop letting Obama influence us, with a cherry picked example that is not representative of reality.

[bobw101]

Rafterman11 replies:

Sounds like true conservative Republican politicians.

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There are very few fiscal conservatives in congress.

[johnlockesghost]

Please correct my mathematics, but a 2% cut in FICA that amounts to a cut of $ 2,000 means that the family in question is pulling down $ 100,000. My heart bleeds for them. PFUI!

[nearl451]

Funny thing is I remember paying the higher rates inthelate 1990's and it wasn'tt hat damned bad.

Let them all expire. Nothing wrong at all with the Cliff.

[sandan123]

Whole truth? Why is it that Reagan was able to raise the budget ceiling 18 times with no problems, and Obama had to fight his way through the Republiclone Congress to do it once (the first time in U.S. history)? Maybe a little BIAS from your PARTY? You guys are headed for the deep six!

[JonnyChepe]

More free stuff??? In 1917 The Soviet government used the press to create "the economy of the gift": everything good in life was a gift of the state, for which the people owed gratitude. Newspapers published letters from workers and peasants thanking Comrade Stalin for everything imaginable--the chance to exceed a quota for wheat production, for a happy life, for raising the Soviet Union's children. These expressions of gratitude grew to take up one-third of a typical newspaper's daily edition. Stalin was the all-wise father of the country, the bestower of gifts. He was God and Santa Claus and everything else tossed together.

Better wake up America before it's too late.....

[Rafterman11]

It isn't 1917 and we aren't the Soviet Union. Stop using meaningless analogies that have no bearing on us.

[Rafterman11]

For all the 'cons attacking Obama for meeting with this family (spending time with the common people would have been a foreign concept to Romney), the point is clear.

The one group of people who wouldn't miss a few thousand dollars a year, the two percent, are the ones being fought hardest for by the GOP.

And that family above are the kinds who can vote people into office successfully not the two percent. Think about it, GOP.

[askagain]

Intelligent people should realize this is just a money grab. Any intelligent person should realize that by raising the deficit by trillions of dollars, taxes would have to go up. Raising taxes is real while talk of lowering expenses is fiction. Whether we go over a fiscal cliff or not, the middle class will suffer the most. The wealthy can take care of themselves but the middle class lacks the options to shelter money. Expect taxes on middle class people to go up.

[Rafterman11]

When Obama visited Buffalo NY, where I live, on a campaign stop, he stopped at a local eatery near my house, talked to the people and ordered some takeout. When Mitt Romney visited a few months later, he went directly to the fundraiser, without stopping to talk to one common person. Romney couldn't be bothered with anyone who didn't have cash in their hand.

Sorry AgentZero, but I saw how Romney operates with my own eyes.

[diddy_back_again]

Mr. President, you've spent us into oblivion. Do you realise how stupid you sound now? "...that a "modest" rate increase on the top two percent must be part of the final equation." No no Mr. President...cut spending first, then we will talk about taxes later. You are in no position to be dictating to anyone about any money issues. 'Middle-class' Mr. President? Marxists talk that way. We all know that you are a Marxist.

[Rafterman11]

Wrong. That myth can end now. Obama has actually spent the least amount of money since Ike.

From Forbes Magazine:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/rickungar/2012/05/24/who-is-the-smallest-government-spender-since-eisenhower-would-you-believe-its-barack-obama/

[Rafterman11]

Why are the Republicans so desperate to sacrifice 98 percent for 2 percent?

The tired old GOP "wealth envy" myth is becoming laughable already.

[wfw3536]

This story is just like CBS's story last night where the man made 70 thousand dollars and worked for the government so you know he will be receiving great benefits. Now we have a family that can afford rent of 2,000 dollars, higher than what most middle class families can afford. These stories are getting really unbelievable when the average American make a little less than 50 thousand dollars a year. Maybe CBS and the president should find real middle class familes, or are they both so out of touch with the real world.

[1notrub11]

So Slow, what is it that you are suggesting? Rental rates of $2K are unrealistic anywhere? You should have more respect for your fellow citizens, regardless of the location where they live.

Unless of course you are holier than everyone else.

[wfw3536]

Slownews ------------I would expect comments like yours from a liberal. You and you're elite friends maybe surprised that many middle class families rent homes for less than 2,000 dollar. It really is a shame how out of touch liberals are with real folks in this country.

[richardine1]

Why is President Obama meeting with people who can't do anything about the fiscal cliff, and not meeting with our elected representatives? More campaigning because he does not know how to lead.