Catching Up

President Barack Obama has interview prep in the Oval Office, July 9, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

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Steve Benen: ….. President Obama spoke from the East Room of the White House this afternoon, making his case for extending a middle-class tax break. As was the case with Obama’s moves on immigration and marriage equality, it’s fair to say the president’s proposal is … clever.

…. Obama reminded the public of the taxes he’s already cut – “I wanted to repeat that because sometimes there’s a little misinformation out there and folks get confused about it,” he said – and highlighted the fact that trickle-down economics hasn’t worked. Obama added that the policy might look a lot different if the nation was still running a surplus.

But the meat of the pitch was making the case for extending lower tax rates for another year for those making under $250,000.

….Obama and his team don’t seem afraid of this fight in the slightest. On the contrary, they feel like they have the stronger hand — if Republicans give in and approve the president’s plan, Obama gets the political benefit; if Republicans are intransigent and fight for the rich, Obama gets the political benefit.

Full post here

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Tuesday: The President travels to Cedar Rapids, Iowa to deliver remarks at a campaign event and will return to Washington, DC in the evening.

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Hiya everyone, how was today on a 0-10 scale?

This and That

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Carnegie Mellon University (Flickr)

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Sandusky, Ohio (Flickr)

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Chat away 😉

Rise and Shine

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Greg Sargent: …. Today Obama will try to go on offense on what Dems hope will be a defining issue of the campaign: Taxes on the rich. He will announce in a Rose Garden speech that he wants Congress to extend the Bush tax cuts for those under $250,000.

Republicans are already bashing the move as a threatened tax hike on “small businesses.” (They said the same thing about proposed tax hikes on those over $1 million; they’ll make this claim no matter what the cutoff is.) But this is a fight the Obama camp wants. It goes directly to the way the Obama team hopes swing voters will perceive this election: As a battle over which side really has the middle class’s interests at heart.

Obama has said the single greatest obstacle to bipartisan compromise on how to move the country forward is the GOP refusal to entertain even a penny more in taxes from the rich, and has called on voters to break that “stalemate.” This move is designed to highlight the cause of this stalemate — to deepen this contrast with Republicans, by putting them in the position of opposing the middle class tax cut extension unless it’s paired with an extension of tax cuts for the rich, revealing whose interests the GOP is protecting.

More here

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Paul Krugman: Once upon a time a rich man named Romney ran for president. He could claim, with considerable justice, that his wealth was well-earned, that he had in fact done a lot to create good jobs for American workers. Nonetheless, the public understandably wanted to know both how he had grown so rich and what he had done with his wealth; he obliged by releasing extensive information about his financial history.

But that was 44 years ago. And the contrast between George Romney and his son Mitt — a contrast both in their business careers and in their willingness to come clean about their financial affairs — dramatically illustrates how America has changed.

More here

Thanks Dotster, I missed this yesterday

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Cagle

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11:50: President Obama delivers a statement calling on Congress to extend the Bush tax cuts for lower and middle-income taxpayers

12:30: Press Briefing by Press Secretary Jay Carney

2:00: The President is interviewed by regional television outlets

4:15: Attends a campaign event at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Washington, DC (Closed Press)

5:20: Attends a campaign event at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Washington, DC (Closed Press)

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Morning everyone 😉