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Election 2012: Obama using tax proposals for his message
U.S. President Barack Obama. PHOTO/File
Aiming tax increases at millionaires and companies that ship jobs abroad may help frame the fairness theme of President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign, but it’s a plan that stands virtually no chance of passing Congress.
Republicans have enough votes in the GOP-run House, and almost certainly in the Democratic-controlled Senate, to kill Obama’s proposals. They say his ideas would discourage investment and job creation and further hurt an already ailing economy.
“He’s got to know that none of those things he proposed really have much of a chance of going through both houses of Congress,” said Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah, top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee.
“I don’t think he’s intending on passing any laws this year,” said House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis. “He’s in a campaign. That was his re-election speech.”
The GOP’s dismissiveness hardly matters to Obama and his Democratic allies.
After last year’s hyper-partisanship bogged down routine business like financing the government and paying its debts, few expect much to move through Congress before November’s election anyway, especially not tax hikes that Republicans solidly reject.
“Even if there is little prospect of getting Republicans to agree with these proposals, they’re important reference points for the public in identifying Obama as someone who’s on their side,” said Democratic pollster Geoffrey Garin.
Obama offered his plans, with scant detail, in Tuesday’s State of the Union address. He used the word “fair” seven times to describe tax increases aimed at groups the Occupy movement has branded as the “one percent” of Americans who are doing extremely well while the rest of society struggles.
