Obama to seek a new tax rate for wealthy
WASHINGTON - September 17, 2011
A White House official said the proposal would be included in
the president's proposal for long term deficit reduction that he
will announce Monday. The official spoke anonymously because the
plan has not been officially announced.
The measure would be in addition to $447 billion in new tax
revenue that Obama is seeking to pay for his short-term spending
and tax cutting plan to jump start the economy.
House Speaker John Boehner said Thursday he would oppose tax
increases to reduce the deficit. Boehner has urged Congress'
deficit "supercommittee" to lay the groundwork for a broad
overhaul of the U.S. tax code.
The panel has almost unlimited authority to recommend changes in
federal spending and taxes and is working against a deadline of
Nov. 23.
Boehner said the panel has "only one option, spending cuts and
entitlement reforms," a reference to government benefit programs
such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
Any broad compromise that clears the bipartisan committee is
almost certain to require Democratic agreement to savings from
programs such as Social Security and Medicare, along with
Republican acquiescence to additional revenues, although any such
tradeoffs are rarely discussed openly until the last possible
moment in negotiations.
Obama's new tax proposal was first reported by the New York
Times.
