Obama Devastates the GOP Argument for Extending the Bush Tax Cuts for the Rich

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Last updated on February 8th, 2013 at 12:48 am

President Obama was in rare form today as he anticipated every Republican argument for extending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy and destroyed them.

Obama debunked several false Republican talking points about his record on taxes. The president said, “Since I’ve been in office we’ve cut taxes for typical middle class family by 3,600 dollars. I wanted to repeat that because sometimes there’s misinformation out there and folks get confused about it.” The president also stated that he has cut taxes for the middle class in every year that he has been in office, and that we have tried the Republican trickle down method for over a decade and all it has gotten us is more income inequality and larger deficits.

The president also took away the Republican claim that not cutting taxes for the wealthiest Americans would hurt small business. Obama said, “We know what those who are opposed will say, we can’t tax job creators and they’ll say this is bad for small business. I’ve cut taxes for small business owners 18 times since I’ve been in office. I’ve also asked congress to pass new tax cuts for entrepreneurs who hire new workers. The proposals I’m making today would extend these tax cuts for 97% of small businesses. 97 percent fall under the $250,000 threshold.”

The president also called for extending the tax cuts to 98% of the American people, “Extend tax cuts for 98 percent of Americans who make less than $250,000 for another year. If Congress doesn’t do this, could see taxes up by $2,200 dollars. That would be a big blow to working families and a drag on the economy.”

Obama completely took the Republican argument away from them by stating the nation simply can’t afford to give tax cuts to the wealthy. He said that the tax cuts don’t help the economy, and they add to the deficit.

The president’s point that the tax cuts for the wealthy don’t create growth or help the economy flies in the face of the conservative fairy tale that tax cuts don’t add to the deficit, and they promote growth.

When it comes to tax cuts for the rich, Republicans are like Linus waiting for the Great Pumpkin on Halloween. They keep telling us that if we just keep believing and cutting taxes for the rich, prosperity will come to us all, but it never does.

You can expect Republicans to keep selling us the trickle down down Great Pumpkin myth, but Obama’s remarks were nothing less than a masterful destruction of every Republican argument for more tax cuts for the wealthy.

The White House would love to have this fight all summer. The Bush tax cut debate gives them a chance to use a very popular position against both congressional Republicans and Mitt Romney.

Obama made it clear that he has every intention of killing the tax cuts for the wealthy. Republicans have no hostages this time, popular opinion is strongly with the president, and Obama has told Congress to either send him a tax cut for the 98%, or prepare for a long and bloody summer.

Your move, Republicans.