Tax the rich, Obama says; class warfare, says GOP

Drawing clear battle lines for next year's elections, a aggressive President Barack Obama on Monday demand that the richest Americans pay higher taxes to help cut soaring U.S. deficits by more than $3 trillion he promise to veto any effort by congressional Republicans to cut Medicare reimbursement for the elderly without raising taxes as well.

"This is not class warfare it's math," Obama declared, anticipate Republican criticism, which was quick in coming "Class conflict isn't leadership," House Speaker John Boehner said, in Cincinnati.

Obama's speech marked a new, challenging stance toward Republicans after months of cooperation that many Democrats complain produced too many concessions even as the plan stands little possibility of passing Congress, its populist pitch is one that the White House believes the public can support.

Obama to propose $1.5 trillion in new tax revenue

President Barack Obama's proposal to decrease long-term deficits with $1.5 trillion in new taxes is less an opening bid in a compromise than it is an opening salvo in a struggle to draw sharp contrasts with congressional Republicans.

Obama's proposal is aimed predominantly at the wealthy and come just days after House Speaker John Boehner ruled out tax increases to lesser deficits it also comes amid a clamor in his own Democratic Party for Obama to take a tougher stance next to Republicans and while the plan stands little chance of transient Congress, its populist pitch is one that the White House believe the public can support.

The core of the president's plan totals just more than $2 trillion in deficit decrease over 10 years it combine the new taxes with $580 billion in cuts to compulsory benefit programs, as well as $248 billion from Medicare.

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White House threatens to veto Boehner's House plan

The White House threatened on Tuesday to veto emergency House legislation with the intention of aims to avert a threatened national defaulting, a pre-emptive strike issue as Republican Speaker John Boehner labored to line up sufficient votes in his own party to pass the measure.

Boehner faced criticism from a little conservative in advance of an expected vote on Wednesday.The bill would raise the debt limit by $1 trillion even as making cuts to federal spending of $1.2 trillion — reductions with the purpose of conservatives say aren't enough.

The measure also would establish a committee of lawmakers to advise additional budget savings of $1.8 trillion, which would trigger an additional $1.6 trillion enlarge in the debt limit.The White House objects to the condition for a second vote before the 2012 elections.

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Congress OKs big budget cuts — bigger fights await

Congress sent President Barack Obama hard-fought legislation cutting a record $38 billion from central spending on Thursday, bestowing bipartisan hold up on the first major compromise stuck between the White House and lately empowered Republicans in Congress.

"Welcome to alienated government," said House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, Republican point man in tough talks with the president and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., that shaped a bill no one claimed to like in its total.

Leader of a rambunctious new greater part, Boehner said the cuts in domestic program were first-time. Yet he also called the measure a less-than-perfect first step in a long campaign against federal red ink, and dozens of rank-and-file conservative voted in opposition to it.

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Obama says spending deal close, Boehner doesn't

A confident President Barack Obama said Friday that negotiation is close with Republicans on $33 billion in financial plan cuts, and he warned that without a deal the resulting government shutdown would "put at risk our financial revival" just as jobs are finally being created.

In spite of his assessment, negotiators report little progress; Senate Democrats backtracked on a key dispensation from former in the week and Congress' top Republican sounded less positive than the president that a breakthrough was coming up.

"There is no number. There is no harmony on a number" on how much to cut, insisted White House Speaker John Boehner, who is underneath strain from tea party-backed conservative not to give too much ground. Still, he added, "I am not practicing for a government shutdown."

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