In a Rose Garden speech Monday morning, President Obama called on Congress to pass $1.5 trillion in new taxes — mostly to be levied on the wealthy — while vowing to veto any deficit reduction plan that reduced entitlement spending or failed to increase taxes on the upper class.
Obama’s potential 2012 GOP opponents had nothing nice to say about his plan.
Mitt Romney
“President Obama’s plan to raise taxes will have a crushing impact on economic growth.” former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said. “Higher taxes mean fewer jobs — it’s that simple. This is yet another indication that President Obama has no clue how to bring our economy back.”
Rick Perry
Texas Gov. Rick Perry called Obama’s plan “a bait and switch that offers more than a trillion dollars in higher taxes for a promise of temporary tax relief.”
“The president penalizes investment when it is needed most, discourages charitable giving and doubles down on a failed government stimulus strategy,” he continued.
Newt Gingrich
“Once again, President Obama fails the test of leadership,” former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said.
“In the midst of the worst economy since the Great Depression, job creation must be job one for our political leaders. Instead, the president has chosen the path of political gamesmanship and class warfare with a plan that would kill jobs with higher taxes on small businesses and private capital. America only works when Americans are working, and President Obama’s latest proposal just doesn’t work.”
Michele Bachmann
Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann criticized the president’s plan for “increasing taxes on job creators.”
“The president’s plan to raise taxes on the American people is the wrong policy to create economic growth and jobs and shows he doesn’t understand how to turn our economy around,” Bachmann said. (RELATED: Obama Rose Garden speech reveals route to 2012 victory)
Ron Paul
Texas Rep. Ron Paul called Obama’s proposal “class-baiting rhetoric” that “categorizes Americans into opposing groups and pits them against one another, purely for his own political gain.”
“Instead of raising taxes, this administration should cut corporate welfare, foreign welfare and end the trillion dollars overseas wars by bringing troops home,” Paul said. “These would be sound policy actions, the kind that create prosperity and engender greater freedom.”
