Obama's deficit plan revs up Democrats

CBS/AP

Democrats in Congress today were energized by President Obama's deficit reduction plan, which in part calls for higher taxes on the wealthy, and called on Congress to get to work on Mr. Obama's proposals right away.

Mr. Obama today put forward a plan to reduce the deficit by about $3 trillion over 10 years. The plan is intended to pay for the president's $447 billion jobs package, as well as to start paying down the nation's long-term deficits and debt. About $1.5 trillion of the budget savings in Mr. Obama's plan comes from raising taxes on the wealthy, closing tax loopholes and other tax changes.

Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., a vocal advocate for reducing income inequality, released a statement applauding President Obama's plan, which she said demands "that millionaires and billionaires pay their fair share."

"The battle lines are drawn in this crisis, and President Obama is taking a clear stand behind our nation's seniors and middle class Americans," Schakowsky said. "Congress must get behind the President's proposal and make sure we do not attempt to reduce the nation's deficit on the backs of the middle class and seniors."

Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., the No. 2 Democrat in the House, called the president's plan a "balanced approach" to creating jobs in the short-term and lowering the deficit in the long-term. "It asks everyone to pay their fair share, strengthens Medicare and Medicaid for future generations while protecting beneficiaries, and emphasizes the need for immediate job creation," he said.

With the plan to pay for Mr. Obama's "American Jobs Act" in place, Hoyer urged House Republican leadership to immediately take up the jobs bill while a special committee tasked with creating a $1.2 trillion deficit reduction plan (dubbed the congressional "super committee") considers Mr. Obama's deficit reduction ideas.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told reporters, "The president has a winning plan and he's going all in and I believe Democrats will be behind him."

Schumer specifically praised what the White House is calling the "Buffett Rule," the Hill reports, which would reform the tax code so that taxpayers making $1 million or more a year were not taxed at lower rates than other taxpayers.

"The Buffet Rule has the potential to be a game changer in the tax debate," Schumer said, calling on Congress to at least take up that specific proposal.

Some liberal leaders praised Mr. Obama's new plan ahead of the president's remarks this morning.

Reps. Raul Grijalva and Keith Ellison, the co-chairs of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, applaued Mr. Obama's "good-faith efforts to address the real drivers of our national deficit" -- tax breaks for the wealthy, corporate loopholes and ongoing wars -- while protecting Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said she was "very encouraged" by the president's focus on tax reform that calls on all Americans to "contribute their fair share" and urged the "super committee" to take up his ideas.

Liberal activists also praised Mr. Obama's proposals. The grassroots group MoveOn.org said Mr. Obama laid out a "clear vision" for putting Americans back to work.

"Americans need jobs not cuts, paid for by making millionaires and corporations pay their fair share," Daniel Mintz, MoveOn.org's campaign director, said in a statement. "Any Republicans, and Democrats, who oppose these common sense, hugely popular proposals will be standing in the way of a real recovery."

MoveOn is already planning to air a TV ad on national cable stations this week that alludes to Mr. Obama's proposed "Buffett rule." The ad features actors portraying middle class workers who say, "I'm Warren Buffett's secretary" and complain about paying higher taxes than the billionaire investor.

[gep1955]

If you voted yes on the poll to raise taxes on the wealthy then you better plan on never being wealthy.
The best that government can do for you is food stamps and unemployment checks instead of a paycheck where you work your way up the ladder and save and make your own future.

The earthquake a couple weeks ago in Virginia was the founding fathers turning over in their graves.

[6591Hou]

"The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground."
Thomas Jefferson

"True individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made."
Franklin D. Roosevelt

"We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. "
Dwight D. Eisenhower

[RobAla]

From day one, he has looked at American citizens and businesses and said the following "Give me more and more of your money to spend, so I can expand the federal government." That's his concern - not jobs, and not really the horrible deficit spending. He has only one real passion.

A little over a year ago President Obama said that we should not increase taxes during an economic downturn, but he never meant it. Throughout his Presidency he has oppressed private sector business with additional expenses and regulation. The horrible health care bill imposes in 2014 huge expenses and regulation on business for EACH EMPLOYEE. Many business owners are putting cash aside for this nonsense, rather than use it to hire workers. Now, President Obama plans to choke private sector business even more by imposing higher taxes on the wealthy (those private sector job creators and those left with the discretionary funds to support business by purchasing goods and services).

President Obama has never been about the expansion of private sector jobs, instead he has always been about the expansion of the federal government at the expense of the private sector. He thinks government can create jobs better than the private sector, and he has done just about everything to beat private sector jobs down.

Government creates jobs artificially, while private sector creates jobs in a real and natural manner (supply and demand). Government takes from the private sector jobs to create it's own via taxes on the private sector. Government never operates efficiently like the private sector has to, because it never has to really stay within a budget like the private sector (so we have a staggering $14.4 trillion national debt). The federal government is dependent on a successful private sector for tax revenue; without it, the federal government would no money to operate on at all. President Obama is absolutely wrong-headed.

President Obama spent a lot of time going over his plan with union leaders, prior to making his speech. However, he refused to give Republicans in Congress the same courtesy of reviewing his plan for America, prior to making his speech. This was not a Presidential address; it was a political campaign speech - dressed with a Presidential address bow. Most of the jobs President Obama says are created by his bill will go to teachers, police, fire fighters, and construction workers - unions (his political supporters). He wants to use $450 billion of the public's money to pay back his supporters. All of us would like better roads and bridges, but we simply can not afford any more nonsense from this administration.

[tsigili]

Why do they support it?

The plan does not actually do a dime of deficit reduction. Not one dime.

All it is, is campaign rhetoric, to make it APPEAR that he wants to tax the rich to pay for the poor.

The real question here.....is how long are the poor going to be lied to, and prevented from having an opportunity to earn their way, and have some degree of success? How long are the poor going to accept the same old way? How long are the poor going to accept having to hold their hands out, to survive?

This President is doing nothing for the poor........he is simply using the poor for his own personal gain!

[obboy2037]

You are wrong. How can a person be so wrong? I am sick in my heart that you probably are a Republican. We can never win using such fact free commentary.

[starman5409]

The Speaker of the House needs to be a non-partisan person who can fairly referee between the two houses.

The current speaker should be arrested for treason and hung on the White House lawn. What he has done and is still doing is unconstitutional, absolutist and obstructionist. That is why we got rid of the British in the first place over 200 years ago.

You don't get it!! How is he supposed to get anything done when Congress blocks him at every step. It's Congress that needs replaced, not the President.

Congress does not live in the real world. They should all be paid minimum wage and living in public housing for their entire term; no fancy limo's and restaurants, no 5 week vacations, just work, like the rest of the country. You live in the trenches with the remaining 100+ million Americans on low and fixed incomes. Only then will you be able to understand what this country needs. These people forget that they work for us, not the other way around.

Well if we hadn't allowed foreign policy to ship American jobs overseas, we'd have jobs here. If 30 million illegals weren't working in this country and using benefits and entitlements meant only for citizens, then we wouldn't have an unemployment problem.

Close the boarders, get rid of the illegals or make them citizens, stop exporting America overseas.

Then we will start seeing improvement in the economy.

And taxes should be fair and equal for all, if you earn 10 billion, you pay 1 billion, if you earn 100,000 you pay 10,000. The party system should be abolished, as it serves no useful purpose other than promoting bigotry and infighting.

[obboy2037]

You are barking up a tree that will never bear fruit.

Some good points, some terrible ones. But, thank you for stating your opinion as just that, your opinion only.

[starman5409]

you got a better idea, state it so we can all say WOW, that's it, that's what will work and fix everything