"Obama, in an address from the White House, called on Congress to pass a one-year extension of tax cuts for households making less than $250,000 a year.
"We don't need more top-down economics," Obama said. "We tried that theory. We've seen what happens. We can't afford to go back to it. We need policies that will grow and strengthen the middle class."
Yeah we sure don't. I already wrote a post today on tax issues in reply to Miles Kimball. As I suggested there I'm a "Demand Side" tax cutter. However, the President then makes a really excellent point:
"Noting that 97 percent of all U.S. small business owners would fall under the $250,000 a year income threshold, Obama said: "This isn't about taxing job creators, this is about helping job creators."
"He said the tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans should expire. "The money we are spending on these tax cuts for the wealthy is a major driver of our deficit," he said. "We can't afford to keep that up."
I like that a lot because it reverses the optics of the debate. The GOP always says that we should not let the top rate for the rich go from 35 to 39.6 percent as this would somehow paralyze job creation. Yet they also claim that small business is the engine of job creation. Obama puts to bed the idea that raising the top rate has anything to do with job creation by pointing out that the job creators mostly don't pay to MTRs-at least small business owners don't.
While the President is already winning-as even Bill Kristol and the Wall Street Journal editorial page have recently admitted-this is a fine way for the President to redefine the fiscal cliff debate in his own terms and not those of the Cato Institute.
I hope this saves a visit or two to my las vegas tax attorney.
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