ABC News’ Jake Tapper previews President Obama’s economic address:
President Obama will today call upon Congress to work with him on preserving the lower tax rates first pushed by President Bush for those Americans who earn under $200,000 a year, but he will state his belief that voters were clear in re-electing him that they support a “balanced approach” to deficit reduction — meaning that the lower tax rates for higher wage earners should expire.
Tapper reports:
The president, aides tell ABC News, will argue that the tax cuts for the middle class are something everyone agrees on, so there’s no reason for them to be linked to tax cuts for wealthier Americans, about which there’s more disagreement. This will be the president “setting the table” for negotiations with Congress, one White House official told ABC News, just as House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, did yesterday when he expressed his determination to stop any de facto tax increase on higher wage earners.
