President Barack Obama sent out a 140-second campaign video to his supporters today in which he congratulated his supporters, downplayed the GOP’s success in the debt ceiling talks, and urged his supporters to lobby for tax increases during the second part of the two-stage deal.
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The second stage will ensure a national debate “about how we rebuild our economy to create greater opportunity, about whether we tackle our challenges by drawing on our best values as one country, everyone pitching in, everyone playing by the same rules,” the president said.
The negotiations were messy, Obama said in a flat-toned voice, but they prevented a default and economic uncertainty that would have imposed “a devastating blow to our economy at a time when we can least afford it.”
He downplayed the spending cuts required by the first stage, saying the deal “trimmed” spending by $1 trillion over the next decade. Obama’s real energy, however, drew attention on the deal’s second stage, in which 12 legislators will draft a plan to shrink the 10-year deficit by another $1.5 trillion.
Those members of Congress — three Republicans and three Democrats from the House, and the same from the Senate — are slated to offer a proposal in November. If Congress fails to either approve or reject it in December, “triggers” will kick in, cutting budgets for Medicare and the military.
“I’ve said from the beginning that the ultimate solution should be balanced,” Obama added. “Balance” is the White House’s shorthand for a deal that includes tax increases.
“Big corporations and the wealthiest Americans shouldn’t be exempt from kicking in. That is just fair.”