Obama Speech to Make Pitch for Economic Fairness
By JOHN H. CUSHMAN Jr. and HELENE COOPER
NYT
WASHINGTON — President Obama, confronting a Congress in which Republicans have been determined to stymie him, will use his third State of the Union address on Tuesday night to offer a populist pitch for greater economic fairness as part of his re-election campaign.
“We can either settle for a country where a shrinking number of people do really well, while a growing number of Americans barely get by,” Mr. Obama says in brief excerpts of the speech released by the White House on Tuesday evening. “Or we can restore an economy where everyone gets a fair shot, everyone does their fair share and everyone plays by the same set of rules.”
By putting a significant accent on taxes, where his differences with Congressional Republicans have always been pronounced, Mr. Obama renews the pressure on them to extend once again a temporary payroll tax break for most working Americans — and also amplifies the attention that has been focused all week on the wealth of Mitt Romney, one of his leading challengers, who has disclosed that he pays less than 15 percent on income of more than $20 million a year.
For weeks, Mr. Obama and his aides have been signaling that the theme of Tuesday’s speech, scheduled to begin at 9 p.m. Eastern Time, would be that the richest Americans should shoulder more of the nation’s tax burden, that the middle class should have a shot at prosperity and that the disadvantaged should be provided social scaffolding to help them climb upward.
(More here.)
NYT
WASHINGTON — President Obama, confronting a Congress in which Republicans have been determined to stymie him, will use his third State of the Union address on Tuesday night to offer a populist pitch for greater economic fairness as part of his re-election campaign.
“We can either settle for a country where a shrinking number of people do really well, while a growing number of Americans barely get by,” Mr. Obama says in brief excerpts of the speech released by the White House on Tuesday evening. “Or we can restore an economy where everyone gets a fair shot, everyone does their fair share and everyone plays by the same set of rules.”
By putting a significant accent on taxes, where his differences with Congressional Republicans have always been pronounced, Mr. Obama renews the pressure on them to extend once again a temporary payroll tax break for most working Americans — and also amplifies the attention that has been focused all week on the wealth of Mitt Romney, one of his leading challengers, who has disclosed that he pays less than 15 percent on income of more than $20 million a year.
For weeks, Mr. Obama and his aides have been signaling that the theme of Tuesday’s speech, scheduled to begin at 9 p.m. Eastern Time, would be that the richest Americans should shoulder more of the nation’s tax burden, that the middle class should have a shot at prosperity and that the disadvantaged should be provided social scaffolding to help them climb upward.
(More here.)
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