Today President Obama gave his first White House news conference since March, addressing his plan to prevent the fiscal cliff and reassuring Republicans that he is willing and ready to work across party lines.
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During the presser, he spoke assertively while defending Susan Rice, the UN Ambassador projected to become one of his Cabinet members in 2013, and opened up on climate change, an issue that was overlooked during the presidential debates and campaign.
Obama began the press conference by talking about the s*x scandal that has forced General David Petreaus to resign from his position as the director of the CIA. Gen. Petreaus had an extraordinary career, he said. By his own assessment he did not meet the standards that he felt necessary to lead the CIA.
Obama also made it clear that he does not want to extend the Bush Tax cuts for high-income earners making over $250,000 a year.
CNN's Jessica Yellin challenged the President on this claim, stating that he also promised not to extend the Bush Tax Cuts in 2010, however he backtracked on his word. "Why should the American people and Republicans believe you won't recant on your statement about not extending the Bush Tax cuts again?" she asked.
He explained that two years ago, the American economy was in a different situation. "This was a one-time proposition," he declared. "I told leaders that we can't afford to extend the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, but we can ensure that the taxes on the middle class do not go up," affirmed the POTUS.
He continued by stressing that we need to simplify our tax code and emphasized that he is not going to extend Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest 2 percent.
In a follow up question about his execution plan to garner revenue from taxes on millionaires, Obama said that there are loopholes that could be closed, and that the filing process needs to be easier and simpler.
"I'm not going to extend further the cuts for high-income people. The math tends not to work," he said stressing that it will not help balance the deficit. We have a clear majority that the American people recognize: "can we all step back and say, here's something we agree on, we don't want taxes to go up on the middle class?"
Obama also stated that he is open to changing government entitlement programs, without specifying which ones.
"I want a big deal, I want a comprehensive deal," he said. "We could get that done by next week."
Posted By: DAVID JOHNSON
Thursday, November 15th 2012 at 11:29PM
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