Obama: Taxing Rich Will Pay for Jobs Plan

Prez wants to end tax breaks for the wealthy and oil, gas companies
By Neal Colgrass,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 12, 2011 3:32 PM CDT
Obama Seeks to End Tax Breaks for Rich to Pay for Jobs Plan
FILE -- In a Sept. 8, 2011 file photyoPresident Barack Obama delivers a speech to a joint session of Congress at the Capitol in Washington. The Democratic National Committee is launching an ad campaign Monday Sept. 12, 2011 in politically key states to try and rally the public behind President Barack...   (AP Photo/Kevin Lamarque, FILE-POOL)

President Obama has picked another fight over tax breaks for the wealthy—this time to pay for his jobs plan. The White House said today that Obama will seek to end tax breaks over 10 years for oil and gas companies, hedge fund managers, and people making over $200,000, to fully fund the $447 billion plan. The White House is gambling that Republicans are willing to compromise after getting politically bruised in a budget battle this summer, the Wall Street Journal reports.

"This tax increase on job creators is the kind of proposal both parties have opposed in the past," says a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, who added that "this proposal doesn't appear to have been offered in that bipartisan spirit." But the White House says Americans are okay with taxing oil and gas companies and hedge fund managers. White House press secretary Jay Carney denies that the tax plan would hurt growth, saying it is "spread out so that there aren't negative impacts." (More tax breaks for the wealthy stories.)

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