Here is a transcript of President Obama’s remarks on middle-class tax cuts delivered on Nov. 28, 2012.
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PRESIDENT OBAMA: It would be good for our children’s future, and I believe that both parties can agree on a framework that does that in the coming weeks. In fact, my hope is to get this done before Christmas. But the place where we already have, in theory at least, complete agreement, right now, is on middle class taxes. And as I’ve said before, we’ve got two choices.
If Congress does nothing, every family in America will see their taxes automatically go up at the beginning of next year. Starting January 1st, every family in America will see their taxes go up.
OBAMA: A typical middle-class family of four would see its income taxes go up by $2,200, that’s $2,200 out of people’s pockets. That means less money for buying groceries, less money for filling prescriptions, less money for buying diapers.
(LAUGHTER)
It means a tougher choice between paying the rent and paying tuition, and middle-class families just can’t afford that right now. By the way, businesses can’t afford it either.
Yesterday I sat down with some small business owners who stressed this point. Economists predict that if taxes go up on middle class next year, consumers will spend nearly $200 billion less on things like cars, and clothes, and furniture, and that obviously means fewer customers, that cuts into business profits, that makes businesses less likely to invest, and hire which means fewer jobs and that can drag our entire economy down.
Now, the good news is, there’s a better option. Right now, as we speak, Congress can pass a law that would prevent a tax hike on the first $250,000 of everybody’s income. Everybody’s. And that means that 98 percent of Americans and 97 percent of small businesses wouldn’t see their income taxes go up by a single dime. Ninety-eight percent of Americans, 97 percent of small businesses would not see their income taxes go up by a single dime.
Even the wealthiest Americans would still get a tax cut on the first $250,000 of their income. So it’s not like folks who make more than $250,000 aren’t getting a tax break, too. They are getting a tax break on the first $250,000 just like everybody else. Families and small businesses would, therefore, be able to enjoy some peace of mind heading into Christmas and heading into the new year.
And it would give us more time than next year to work together on a comprehensive plan to bring down our deficits, to streamline our tax system, to do it in a balanced way, including asking the wealthiest Americans to pay a little more so we can invest in training, education, science, and research.
Now, I know some of this may sound familiar to you because we talked a lot about this during the campaign. This shouldn’t be a surprise to anybody. This was a major debate in the presidential campaign, and in Congressional campaigns all across the country, and a clear majority of Americans, not just Democrats, but also a lot of Republicans, and a lot of independents, agreed we should have a balanced approach to deficit reduction that doesn’t hurt the economy and doesn’t hurt middle-class families.
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