In anticipation of next week’s Senate showdown over his proposed “Buffett rule,” President Barack Obama on Wednesday attempted to draw a comparison between himself and Ronald Reagan, referring to the Gipper as another “wild-eyed, socialist, tax-hiking class warrior.”
Speaking at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, D.C., Obama drew chuckles when he said that he is not the first president to call “for this idea that everybody has got to do their fair share” and he offered to rename his proposal the “Reagan Rule” if it would sway Congress to buy into his campaign for higher taxes on top U.S. earners.
“He thought that, in America, the wealthiest should pay their fair share, and he said so. I know that position might disqualify him from the Republican primaries these days, but what Ronald Reagan was calling for then is the same thing that we’re calling for now: a return to basic fairness and responsibility; everybody doing their part. And if it will help convince folks in Congress to make the right choice, we could call it the Reagan Rule instead of the Buffett Rule,” said Obama.
The proposal, which faces Republican opposition in a test vote in the Senate on April 16, is named after billionaire investor Warren Buffett, who says he pays a lower tax rate than his secretary, largely because of the preferential treatment given to capital gains and dividends.
Editor’s Note: Touching Tribute Video to Ronald Reagan – Watch It Here
Michael Reagan, the son of the late president, labeled Obama a “sly dog” for previous statements Obama made about his father in a column published today on Newsmax.com. “You were also trying to make it seem that Ronald Reagan would support your socialist dream for America. That he would support hiking taxes to cover the deficit. That he would even support higher corporate tax rates and more government regulations on business,” penned Michael Reagan. “That, Mr. President, is absolutely untrue.”
See video below.
Speaking in Florida earlier this week, Obama also encountered pushback from Sen. Marco Rubio of the Sunshine State, who called the president’s approach “little more than an election year political stunt to raise taxes on investors who help create jobs.”
Rubio said that Obama’s plan won’t create jobs for the millions of unemployed Americans who need them, but has more to do with helping Obama keep his job.
“President Obama doesn’t get it. Job creators need a simplified tax code that stops punishing success and new investments that will help put people to work,” said Rubio. “They need regulatory reform that weeds out the nonsensical mandates and rules that increase costs on business owners. And we need fundamental reforms that will change the culture of spending in Washington and save essential safety net programs.”
Invoking Reagan, Obama said that the beloved president once gave a speech in which he talked about a letter he had received from a wealthy executive who paid lower tax rates than his secretary and who wanted to come to Washington to tell Congress why that was wrong.
He said Reagan described the tax system as “ 'crazy’— that's a quote — that certain tax loopholes make it possible for multimillionaires to pay nothing, while a bus driver was paying 10 percent of his salary.”
Obama also urged Americans to call their members of Congress in support of the Buffett rule.
“Tell them to stop giving tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans who don’t need them and aren’t asking for them,” he said. “Tell them to start asking everybody to do their fair share and play by the same rules, so that every American who’s willing to work hard has a chance at similar success, so that we’re making the investments that help this economy grow, so that we’re able to bring down our deficits in a fair and balanced and sensible way. Tell them to pass the Buffett Rule.”
Editor’s Note: Touching Tribute Video to Ronald Reagan – Watch It Here
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