Obama to push for 1-year extension of Bush tax cuts for middle-class

President Obama returns to the White House from the Camp David presidential retreat, July 8, 2012.

/ Getty

(CBS News) President Obama will launch on Monday a push to extend the so-called Bush tax cuts for low and middle-income Americans, but he will continue to fight for the cuts to expire on Jan. 1 for people earning more than $250,000.

A senior Obama campaign official confirmed to CBS News a report in The New York Times that President Obama would officially announce his call for a one-year extension to the tax cuts for Americans at or below that income threshold in a news conference on Monday.

Obama campaign senior adviser Robert Gibbs hinted at the announcement Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union."

Gibbs said the president was "100 percent committed" to allowing some Bush-era tax cuts to expire, reports CBSNews.com's Leigh Ann Caldwell.

The series of tax cuts originally passed in 2001 and 2003 during George W. Bush's presidency, and later extended, are set to expire at the end of this year, explains Caldwell. In 2010, President Obama agreed to a two-year extension, but Gibbs gave on Sunday the first insight into the campaign's plan to block another extension for couples making more than $250,000.

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"We should protect the tax cuts for the middle-class, and we should let tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires expire," Gibbs told host Candy Crowley. "We have tried these different philosophies before; we know what tax breaks and tax cuts for the wealthy and [taking] financial regulations off of Wall Street mean. They mean economic calamity, they mean what we are dealing with now, versus a vision where we add jobs and build out the middle-class.

"Let's make some progress on our spending by doing away with tax cuts for people who quite frankly don't need them . . . and have them pay their fair share."

CBS Radio News White House correspondent Mark Knoller says the Obama campaign will try to amplify the President's message on middle class tax cuts with a series of campaign trail events in battleground states this week.

The events will include public discussions in Concord, New Hampshire, Las Vegas, Nevada, Aspen, Colorado and Tampa, Florida.

[LI_tax]

Dear Mr. Obama,

My fellow long islanders refer only to teachers. The reality is it could be a cop and his nurse wife or a myriad of other quintessential middle class families earning $250,000 and above. We already "lose" 45% of our paychecks and pay $15,000- 40,000 per year in property taxes on small cape homes. The answer is simple - regionalize income tax rates. Medicare already has a nearly perfect system for paying out claims by region, just reverse it for collection of taxes. Hospitals and doctors on long island get paid twice what rural Mississippi hospitals & doctors do. WHY? because Medicare recognizes that the cost of living on long island is twice that other regions. I bet $250,000 is super rich in such a rural county. Use $250,000 as the mean for rich, long island will then be somewhre around 450,000 for rich and rural Mississippi will be $175,000. Sometimes the easiest answers are the best

[lg144]

Ever notice republicans NEVER run budget deficits on spending to help average Americans? They ALWAYS waste taxpayer dollars on things to empty the treasury without helping people. This is strategic by republicans. They do this and then cry the country is broke and we can't afford that! They do this because they NEVER want average americans to think government can help and enhance them. They ALWAYS use government to help corporations, big oil and the wealthy, not average Americans. This is why republicans ALWAYS speak negatively of government. Wake up people!

This is why they have been on a 30 plus years crusade against governemnt. To convince average Americans that government is no good and cannot do anything positive for them. They use the term Limited Government" what they really mean as republicans we limit governments ability to help and enhance the lives of average Americans while enhusiastically supporting corporations, big oil and the super rich.

Can any republican supporter state any republican bill, policy or current political stance that favors struggling Americans over corporations, big oil and the wealthy? Of course this looong list will justify republicans deserving the votes of struggling Americans over President Obama and Democrats, right? Republicans are using playing on the racism against President Obama of some voters to get them to vote republican. Which ironically is the very party that has blocked and stopped every piece of legislation from President Obama that would help average Americans. This election voters will decide whether to reward the republican party which has brazenly worked to keep them jobless or reward President Obama for constantly fighting against them on behalf of average Americans.

Wake Up Voters!

[TimeToEvolve]

The problem was and always has been the unfair amount of the tax cuts for the rich who don't need it.

Hard to believe anyone would have the nerve to defend anything that was done by the Bush Cheney Crime Family. You know look for one little token good thing that the Crime Family did for the 99% and say the scoundrels did good.

[thefatcat2]

Obama says 85,000 new jobs created a month is all we need.
Otherwise, why would Obama want to raise Tax on Small Business owners.
First, it is the cost increase for Health care and Now this.

[marychgo]

The vast majority of those who have an Adjusted Gross Income of $250,000 or more are NOT small business owners. In fact, there are probably far more small business owners in the UNDER-$250,000 bracket than in the OVER-$250,000 bracket. So be happy, fatcat: the small business owners get to keep their tax cuts!

[lovethiscountry]

WHAT IS A SMALL BUSINESS? :: Did you know that the legal definition of a small business is determined by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA)? Title 13, Part 121 of the Code of Federal Regulations sets forth in detail the criteria to be used by the SBA in making small business determinations. Examples of these criteria include the number of workers employed by a business, annual receipts, and the nature of the any relationships with affiliates. The SBA establishes small business "size standards" on an industry-by-industry basis using statistics from a wide range of sources. There are size standards in each industry (e.g. manufacturing, heavy construction, specialty trade construction, retail trade, etc.) that a business must meet in order to be considered small. Here is a full list of industries and size standards (requires Adobe Acrobat). Following is a list of the most common size standards used by the SBA to determining whether or not a business is small.
500 or fewer employees for most manufacturing and mining industries (a few industries permit up to 750, 1000 or 1,500 employees)

100 or fewer employees for all wholesale trade industries

$6 million per year in sales receipts for most retail and service industries (with some exceptions)

$27.5 million per year in sales receipts for most general & heavy construction industries

$11.5 million per year in sales receipts for all special trade contractors

$0.5 million per year in sales receipts for most agricultural, forestry and fishing industries

[pleasechoseanother]

If the Republican Congress will take the tax break and run with it obama will do an about face so fast his head will spin like CHUCKY'S.

[JamesSao]

Obama is the most divisive Pres in history. I truly believe his goal is to break the will of Americans in order to destroy any semblance of the American dream. I just can not imagine whet this POS could be capable of if he actually won and did not have to face re-election. His pandering shows no bounds and his greed for power no end. If re-elected this country will quickly spiral out of control. You think jobs are scarce now? Wait for a re-elected Obama to continue his attack on those who create jobs. You think the dollar has lost value under Obama? Wait for an Obama re-election where the Fed will be let lose with more QE's that print phony money and feed the feds never ending appetite for more tax revenuses. The private sector middle class will not vote for Obama. But the govt teat sucking 50%ers who pay nothing will. Their handout, not hand-up, is all they care about.

[wfw3536]

Boy, I didn't think Obama could do it, but this is 2 broken promises on extending the the Bush/Obama tax cuts. When he ran he promised he wouldn't extend them, but I guess when you are desperate to win you will just break your promises, just like he did when he told the American people that Obamacare wasn't a tax. Oh the hypocrisy.

[CaptainSmollett]

How ironic, since Obama is increasing the tax burden on middle-income Americans through ObamaCare: capital gains, dividends, payroll taxes....

PS - Anyone who thinks that taking money away from any class of investors and consumers is good for the economy (based on some rationale of fairness) is a jealous fool who is clueless about economics.

Obama's position on this issue is another example of why businesses are not investing and hiring: As long as we have an anti-capitalist administration that is unfriendly to business, creates an environment of uncertainty and anxiety, and punishes wealth creation, this economy will continue to stagnate and it will NOT create jobs!

[marychgo]

Aw, c'mon, Captain Smollett, I'm sure you know the ACA taxes on capital gains, dividends, and higher payroll taxes apply only to those with Adjusted Gross Incomes of $250,000 or more. That's NOT a middle class income! The median individual income in the U.S. is about $35,000; the median household income is about $45,000. By what insane standard is someone who earns five times the median income supposed to be considered "middle-income"?

[infantryman1968]

Obama to push for 1-year extension of Bush tax cuts for middle-class


LOL!


For 6 years Obama and his followers told us the the Bush Tax Cuts were for the Rich only and Obama renewed it 3 times in the last 3 1/2 years.........

The Irony

[marychgo]

Sorry, infantryman, but extending the Bush tax cuts for those earning up to $200,000 single/$250,000 filing jointly and ending them for those above those limits has been a part of the Obama program since BEFORE the 2008 election. He's asked Congress to do precisely that on numerous occasions. He asked Congress to do the same when the Bush tax cuts were about to expire in late 2010, but ultimately traded extension of the higher-income tax cuts for GOP agreement to extend unemployment benefits and a few other small programs designed to encourage economic growth. That's the ONLY time the Bush tax cuts have been extended during Obama's term.

[arthanyel]

Republicans believe in tax cuts - they should have no problems with extending the middle class tax cut for a year. And if they win the WHite House and the Congress they are going to pass bigger tax cuts for the 1% anyway. So there is no reason at all for them to fight this - unless all they truly care about are the millkionaires and billionaires.

Which is, of course, all they DO really care about.