Tag Archives: Middle class

No Faking it


By ThinkProgress War Room

Obama Rejects Fake Tax “Compromise”

As the fiscal showdown begins in earnest, Republicans have been trying to at least sound like they’re open to a real compromise on taxing the wealthy. But a closer look at what they’re actually proposing shows that it is no compromise at all. In fact, it’s almost identical to the tax plan none other than Mitt Romney just ran on — and lost.

Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO) said the president should find common ground by adopting policies “just like Romney suggested.” This ridiculous argument has been echoed by numerous other Republicans, including Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY).

What Republicans are proposing is to lower tax rates for the wealthy, close some unspecified loopholes, and then through magic expect to get more revenue. Republicans relied on this same sort of magic math to suggest that the Bush tax cuts would result in massive job growth and enough revenue to completely pay off the national debt by 2010. Instead we got massive deficits and the worst job growth in decades.

During a White House press conference today, the president rejected this kind of magical thinking on taxes. Obama derided “dynamic scoring” — the revenue increases that conservatives claim will occur after tax cuts — saying he would oppose any efforts to only “sorta-kinda raise revenue”:

What I will not do is to have a process that is vague, that says we’re going to sorta-kinda raise revenue through dynamic scoring or closing loopholes that have not been identified. And the reason I won’t do that is I don’t want to find ourselves in a position six months from now or a year from now, where low-and-behold, the only way to close the deficit is to sock it to middle-class families.

Watch it:

BOTTOM LINE: We have to address our fiscal problems using math, not magic. President Obama received a mandate from voters to ask the wealthiest Americans to pay their fair share. Instead of trying recycle and repackage their failed plans, it’s time for Republicans to stop holding middle class tax cuts hostage and start making a deal.

Evening Brief: Important Stories That You Might’ve Missed

Romney tells donors that Obama only won because of “big gifts” to blacks and Latinos.

UN declares access to contraception a “universal human right.”

Is it game over for Grover Norquist?

Weeks after giving $100,000 to American Crossroads, coal company lays off workers.

Failure to extend unemployment insurance could cost 400,000 jobs.

Nancy Pelosi might be Speaker Pelosi again if not for the GOP’s extreme gerrymandering.

Romney co-chair says he would’ve “absolutely” won Wisconsin if the state’s voter ID law hadn’t been struck down.

How the tragic death of an Irish woman who was denied an abortion could become the norm in the U.S.

Most Americans support a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.

Denny Heck for Congress : and the Middle Class


Today’s a big day for our campaign. 

It’s about getting Congress back to work on fixing our economy and it won’t look like other political ads you’ll see this year.

Since he started this campaign last year, Denny has been talking about the importance of getting Congress focused on working together to help the middle class and those working to get into it.  And he’s done so with a clear, positive message. Those same values and attitude – and a bit of humor – went into making this ad.

I hope you like our first ad. I hope you like it enough that you’re willing to make a contribution of $5, $10, or $25 today to keep it on the air. We need to raise $11,233 by Sunday to finish out our ad buy, and we can only do it with your support.


29 days to go. Let’s Give Congress Heck!
-Hart Edmonson Campaign Manager

the Middle Class


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Middle Class Taxes.
Click on the Photo above for the video
 
Middle class Americans discuss what a tax increase would mean to them. Unless the House of Representatives takes action before January 1, 2013, taxes will go up on 114 million middle-class families. Republicans in the House of Representatives, however, are refusing to extend middle-class tax cuts without also giving massive tax cuts to the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans. In fact, House Republicans have proposed their own tax plan that would actually raise taxes on 25 million families making less than $250,000, while giving families making more than $1 million an average tax cut of $160,000 next

a message from Stephanie Cutter


Here’s just a snapshot of what Mitt Romney‘s platform calls for:

— Turn Medicare into a voucher program to buy private insurance,
forcing seniors to pay more out of pocket for their health care costs.

— Outlaw all abortions without exception for rape or incest
(including a “salute” to states like Virginia that have passed extreme
ultrasound laws).

— Ban marriage equality and reject civil unions of all kinds.

— Won’t protect the mortgage interest deduction for middle-class
families if Romney enacts his tax plan, even though it helps more than
30 million middle-class families.

— Kill investments in clean energy jobs and reject the wind
production tax credit, which would cost up to 37,000 American jobs.

“Intolerant” and “mean-spirited” sounds about right to me.

Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are in lockstep with this platform, but pay
close attention to what they’re saying up on that stage this week — I
guarantee you won’t hear a whole lot about any of that.

Instead, they’re filling their free airtime with false promises and
baseless attacks on President Obama. We can’t let them get away with it.

# FORWARD


Aug 18, 2012 by    

Help build this campaign: http://OFA.BO/nHAK2p
Four years ago as I had the privilege to travel all across this country and meet Americans from all walks of life.
I decided nobody else should have to endure the heartbreak of a broken health care system. No one in the wealthiest nation on earth should go broke because they get sick.
Nobody should have to tell their daughters or sons the decisions they can and cannot make for themselves are constrained because of some politicians in Washington.
And thanks to you we’ve made a difference in people’s lives. Thanks to you there are folks that I meet today who have gotten care and their cancer’s been caught. And they’ve got treatment. And they are living full lives and it happened because of you.
We’ve come too far to turn back now. We’ve got too much work to do to implement health care. We’ve got too much work to do to create good jobs.
We’ve got too many teachers that we’ve got to hire.  We’ve got too many schools that we’ve got to rebuild. We’ve got too many students who still need affordable higher education.
There’s more homegrown energy to generate. There more troops that we’ve got to bring home.
There more doors of opportunity we’ve got to open to anybody who is willing to work hard and walk through those doors.
We’ve got to keep building an economy where no matter what you look like or where you come from, you can make it here if you try.
And you can leave something behind for the next generation, that’s what at stake right now Colorado. That’s why I’m running for President of the United States of America.
That’s why I’m asking for your vote. I still believe in you. And if you still believe in me, and if you’re willing to stand with me, and knock on some doors with me, and make some phone calls with me, and talk to your neighbor and friends about what’s at stake—we will win this election. We will finish what we started.
And we’ll remind the world why America is the greatest nation on earth.
God bless you and God bless the United States of America.

Aug 18, 2012 by    

Share this: http://OFA.BO/PSR8Rr Tweet this: http://OFA.BO/BdNe3m
President Obama was at a grassroots event in Rochester, NH to discuss middle-class economic security. President Obama has already cut taxes for a typical New Hampshire family by $4,200 over four years, helping families afford to send their children to college, buy their first home, pay for health care and child care.
The centerpiece of the Romney-Ryan economic proposals is a $5 trillion tax cut, with a lot of it going to the wealthiest Americans. In addition, Romney and Ryan put forward a plan that would let Governor Romney pay less than 1% in taxes each year. And this tax plan would actually raise taxes on middle-class families with children by an average of $2,000.