Obama: Expanding the Middle Class is ‘Defining Issue of Our Time’
- Posted on January 4, 2012 at 11:26pm by
Tiffany Gabbay
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WASHINGTON (The Blaze/AP) – President Barack Obama is pushing his economic message in Ohio, brandishing his presidential megaphone in a politically important state to make certain his appeal to the middle class is heard amid the boisterous start of the Republican campaign for the White House.
Obama was traveling Wednesday to the most Democratic congressional district in Ohio, a Cleveland suburb, a day after Mitt Romney won Iowa’s Republican presidential caucuses by just eight votes. Obama‘s trip signals the White House’s intent to keep the president in the public eye even as the political world focuses on the GOP’s selection process.
The White House‘s choice of Ohio for Obama’s first presidential trip of 2012 underscores the state’s high-profile role in presidential politics. It is a swing state that went for George W. Bush in 2004 and for Obama in 2008. A top manufacturing state, Ohio has seen its jobless rate follow the national pattern; unemployment was 8.5 percent in November compared with 9.6 percent a year before.
Obama set the tone Tuesday for a White House strategy that aims to maintain pressure on congressional Republicans while promoting an economic plan that serves as much as a policy prescription as it does a political platform for the general election.
Addressing Iowa Democrats by teleconference as the GOP caucus counting was still under way, Obama described Republicans as embracing a “theory that says we’re going to cut taxes for the wealthiest among us and roll back regulations on things like clean air and health care reform, Wall Street reform, and somehow that automatically that assures that everybody is able to succeed.”
“I don’t believe that,” Obama declared.
Pressing his economic agenda, Obama has said expanding the middle class is “the defining issue of our time.” His spokesman, Jay Carney, on Tuesday called it “his No. 1 focus.”
As defined by the president and by his advisers, his economic argument is that the middle class is facing a “make or break moment.” On that score, Obama still has a few confrontations with Congress in the year ahead.
He still wants to extend a payroll tax cut for all of 2012. Republicans avoided being blamed for a tax increase last month when House GOP leaders agreed to a two-month extension. A longer version will have to be decided by the end of February. Obama is also likely to point to elements of a jobs package he advanced last year that failed in the face of Republican opposition.
Obama is also at odds with Senate Republicans over his nomination of Richard Cordray as head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a central feature of new bank regulations that Congress approved and Obama signed in 2010. Republicans are blocking Cordray’s appointment, effectively hamstringing the bureau’s work. Battling Wall Street overreach has been a recurrent Obama theme as he advocates for the middle class.
Signaling that he would continue to draw sharp lines between the middle class and the wealthy, Obama told the Iowa Democrats in his videoconference Tuesday that he would insist on the rich paying more in taxes.
“If we‘re going to make the investments that we need for our kids at the same time as we’re controlling our deficit, then there‘s nothing wrong with saying to millionaires and billionaires that we’re going to let your tax cuts expire,” Obama said. “The other party has a fundamentally different philosophy.”
Administration officials say they were especially encouraged by the public‘s response to Obama’s call for extending the payroll tax cut and indicate Obama will make such appeals repeatedly to gain leverage over Congress and Republicans, in particular.
“There are more things that need to be done,” Carney said Tuesday. “There are elements of the jobs act that we believe, as we did from the beginning, merit bipartisan consideration and support. This country is in crying need of work on its infrastructure.”
In speaking at Shaker Heights High School on Wednesday, Obama is returning to a Cleveland suburb that he visited in 2009 while pushing his health care overhaul plan. Obama also planned to meet with a family at their home, a tactic Obama has employed before to personalize his agenda.
(h/t: CNSNews)
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Comments (132)
JQCitizen
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 12:41amThis man is a LIAR, and will not be content until there are ONLY TWO CLASSES:
The POLITICALLY CONNECTED CLASS and the SERFS.
It is the middle class that he is trying to eliminate.
Report Post »BurntHills
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 12:50amobama wants to be fuhrer and for everyone to grovel before him
Report Post »Bill Rowland
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 7:21amBurnthills, you’re wrong! He wants to be King. He won’t settle for just being a dictator like his Buddy Hugo Chavez. He has to be crowned as royalty.
If you think he is going to go quietly when he loses in November, you are living in a Fairy Tale where Americas Constitution matters.
All Hail King Obumbler the First.
OMG
Report Post »JRook
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 11:08am@JQCitizen Wonderful rant. Unfortunately your like or dislike for the President it of no interest or consequence. Please make an attempt to support your accusations and labels with some facts.
Report Post »turkey13
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 11:24amDon’t blame the President – he promised “Hope and Change” and congress failed him. Nancy promised to “Drain the swamp” and Congress failed her. Obama promised to “Spread the Wealth” but Congress failed him. The man really believed that his word would be law – but the people failed him.
Report Post »SamIamTwo
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 12:10pmBingo!
Report Post »encinom
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 4:48pmThe GOP with their Tea Bagging minions are the ones waging war against the middle class. The GOP was the ones blocking the pay roll tax break, the GOP are the ones putting the needs of those earnng over 1 million dollars a year above the middle class. The GOP has waged war on the working class.
The Facts are clear, the GOP is engaged in class warfare, they have enlisted the useful idiots of the Tea Party to fight on behalf of the wealthiest. to surpress the rights and wages of the middle class and working class.
Report Post »HumbleMan
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 6:23pmGuys, I think it’s safe to say we should ignore ENCINOM. He uses derogatory language to claim everything damning about the “new” Dem. party is true about conservatives. Lies, lies and damn lies.
Report Post »yohannbiimu
Posted on January 6, 2012 at 11:07amTrue. Actually, the poor in America are the “middle class” in most countries, so Obama’s just trying to make us as poor as everyone else, but he’s working on a two “class” society, where there are only serfs and lords & ladies.
Report Post »Alan
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 12:37amThe only way the government can create more middle class is by reducing the rich to middle class status. The government will never create middle class out of poor people. Only the rich can make the poor into middle class, and they do it by hiring the poor.
Report Post »Bill Rowland
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 7:34amThere is another way. You tax the current middle class until they are poor, then give the money to the welfare whores.
Then the government declares the middle class to be those who have more than $25,000 to be middle class. It can be done with an executive order or a new regulation from Geitner.
OMG
Report Post »AvengerK
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 11:00amObama has “pivotted” to focus on jobs at least seven or eight times now. This is just more hogwash from Obama.
Report Post »JRook
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 11:20am@Alan Ah yes the wealthy are job creator argument. Wonderful sound bite with little standing in reality. Demand is what creates economic activity and ultimately jobs. The wealthy invest, as do mutual funds and union pension plans in financing businesses to satisfy demand. However, as we have seen over the past few years, as the market is unable to maintain the requisite level of demand, economic activity slows and investment shrinks. The historically high concentration of wealth also slows down demand as one can only own so many houses, cars and stuff. The real decline is in the notion of citizenship which used to guide investment. Corporations and the wealthy used to care about the country at large and the local community. The decline in both is correlated to the self promotion, self indulgence and increasing lack of real risk taking. We have a generation of people who do not wish to invest in communities, education and infrastructure at the level our grandparents did. And this despite it was those same investments that allowed this generation to attain the wealth. Were our grandparents socialists because they agreed to tax rates necessary to fund good schools, strong communities, solid infrastructure and greater access to higher education. If they were than we all are products of their socialist interests.
Report Post »C. Schwehr
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 11:53amJROOK: I see that you are a socialist apologist for the failures of your religion. And as a socialist you have no concept of how the capitalist economy really works. You probably believe the myth of Keynesian “economics” whereby “priming the pump” is supposed to jump-start the economy. The exact same methods were used by FDR during the 1930s and were directly responsible for extending the U.S. GREAT Depression by an estimated seven years while the europeans had already recovered by the late 30s. In reality, the U.S. Depression didn’t end until 1954 when the stock market finally recovered to the same level as it had been in Oct, 1929. THAT is what your mythical Keynesian “economics” did then and that is what your economic voodoo is doing to the United States AGAIN thanks to the rudderless “leadership” of your messiah. Four more years of your
Report Post »TH30PH1LUS
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 12:36amMr. President,
please abandon the marxist dreams of your late father and your college buddies. Embrace the Liberty and Individual freedoms secured by our Constitution. Revitalize industry here in America, by opening up new oil drilling and refineries, and securing American energy independence. Secure our borders. Stop bailing out the old dinosaurs (Fanny&Freddy, Wall Street cronies) and socializing businesses (GM & GE). Let Americans rise and fall and rise again on our own initiatives. THat’s how we learn and grow up. Boot all those Czars – since when does America need Czars?
Thanks.
Report Post »barackem
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 12:35amThe poorer the rich people are, I guess the more rich it makes the middle class feel. If we all get really, really poor, we will then feel really really rich.
Report Post »Californiasodbuster
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 12:29amAll this worthless commie is doing, is blatantly giving the middle class the middle finger.
Report Post »I hope his karma comes down on him big time.
TSUNAMI-22
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 12:52amObama is telling no lies here. Communism is a classless society where everybody’s life sucks except for a few handlers at the top.
Expand the middle class to where everyone falls into the same category and viola, communism.
If I was Obama, I’d be very wary of the people closest to him. That’s who will eventually take him down.
Report Post »BurntHills
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 1:10amlet’s all bribe those rabid communists closest to obama to HURRY IT UP then.
Report Post »MCDAVE
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 12:27amWe the middle class have born the brunt of your bad economic policies..STOP LYING..Does he have a clue THE AMERICAN PEOPLE HATE YOU..
Report Post »NOBALONEY
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 12:23amObama’s playing all the fields. The poor, with food stamps, the unemployed, with extended benefits, OWS, with “we understand your struggles”, and now the middle class, with expanding it as a defining issue.
Report Post »Obama really has a way with words and speeches, but none of his actions have been beneficial for the american people. He’s governing, and control are for the purposely decline of the American way of Life. Actions speak louder than words.
Obama defines the importance of the middle class, but I would rather define the importance of the individuals rights regardless of class.
jb.kibs
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 12:28amthere’s nothing wrong with them saying “See you later, we are moving to China” either. i see you really think things through, don’t ya Obama?
Report Post »HumbleMan
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 3:20amRead Saul Alinsky’s “Rule for Radicals”. BHO is using this as a playbook. Among other things it aspires to the “radicalization of the middle class” to achieve a second American revolution or communism.
If you haven’t read it already, do it.
Report Post »Tri-ox
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 12:23amEvil-enemy-turd.
Report Post »bornagaincowgirl
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 12:17amMaking the middle class bigger is “code” for spreading the wealth. Rich get poorer, poorer get richer, and we all live happily ever after. NOT. May God forgive us for anything and everything we ever did as christians and a nation that allowed this man to be elected president. May God have mercy on us now.
Report Post »larry25427
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 12:14amTaking from the rich and GIVING to the poor is doomed to failure. The Bible says those who don’t work should not eat. 2Th_3:10 For even when we were with you, we commanded you this, that if anyone would not work, neither should he eat.
Report Post »Large Eagle
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 12:10amOne expires they all expire
Report Post »LogiStyx
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 12:00amCriminal-in-Chief.
Report Post »Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra
Posted on January 4, 2012 at 11:59pmSay, you have to get a 3.7 GPA to get into Harvard, but I am going to move it to a 3.0 to get into Harvard and make them double the students. Now you have more people going to and graduating from Harvard, you just created more Harvard Grads, but the quality is dropping. That is what he is going to do with the middle class, tax the rich more, so they drop down to the middle class, and maybe even up welfare benefits so more people are earning just enough to put them into the mddleclass. Did he really create more, or just lower the quality?
Report Post »HumbleMan
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 5:44amGood … here’s another way to view it (from Wilkow)
Libs admit they employ an ideology to 1) tax things they don’t want (like cigarettes or gas consumption) to get less of it, and 2) subsidize things they want more of (green energy, education).
In general the result is just that: you get less of behavior you tax, and more of behavior you subsidize.
Sadly, our progressive income tax, taxes those who “work” for their money … so we get LESS of that. And our recipient entitlement policies subsidize non-working folks, giving them bonuses like food stamps, we get MORE of that behavior.
There’s no math to do. They don‘t see the error in their thinking because they don’t think.
TEA
Report Post »HumbleMan
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 5:45amAlso to quote Margaret Thatcher: “You cannot create wealth by dividing it.”
Report Post »Diane TX
Posted on January 4, 2012 at 11:58pmI don’t believe that the ultra-wealthy are ones who would be earning good wages while building, operating and maintaining the oil pipeline from Canada, but will Obama get on board to agreeing to it? N-o-o-o-o!
I also believe that Obama’s “idea” of expanding the middle class is to make the wealthy poorer so that he can claim success.
Report Post »AnAmerican111
Posted on January 4, 2012 at 11:57pmWelcome to OBUMA……………………….Lies and more lies!……………..]
Will America wake up in time? Remains to be seen!
Report Post »Rational Man
Posted on January 4, 2012 at 11:56pmAll this jerk has done is shrink the middle class by expanding the poverty class.
Report Post »I hate this guy! He always says the opposite of what he has done and is doing.
But what more could we expect from the “4th greatest president”?
MEANS2RESIST
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 2:19amI loathe this guy…the liar n thief. An illegal, affirmative action nobody,communist basta*d is trying to pull of the biggest sham in our 235 year history. We bust our ass for years, try & gain a little prosperity and this pri*k comes in & in three years threatens our republic & our way of life? I don’t think so!
Report Post »…..
Psychosis
Posted on January 4, 2012 at 11:51pmhe is trying to make the middle class bigger by moving the upper class down into the middle class
and he wants the middle class to move down the ladder even further
you cant control an affluent people ………………they have too many resources
thats why he is trying to destroy us economically ………………….the perpetual goal of the communists and the left
Report Post »Rational Man
Posted on January 4, 2012 at 11:57pmExactly!…….
Report Post »MS Patriot
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 1:28amThe progressive socialist movement has spent the last 40 years undermining the greatest nation in the world.
They have attacked the foundation of our country and why our values made us a great Nation.
Report Post »They have taken God out of schools, God out of our government and now they are working to take God our of our religion.
They have attacked our economy by over regulating and over taxing it. When that didn’t work fast enough they attacked our companies ability to compete on the international market by enacting a free trade agreement that only benefited those countries that would unfairly lure our companies away from the US to do business in foreign lands.
The redistribution of American wealth has been going on now for over 40 years. Once our country is made as poor as all other nations and our people do not have the wealth to protect themselves the socialist will have finally won. They will have destroyed the greatest Republic ever known to man, without firing one single bullet, one mortar round or even a ballistic rocket. They simply did it by subversive measures, infiltrating our school, businesses and government and making us pay for our own downfall.
We can continue to vote for the progressives, either Democratic or Republican, they are one in the same or we can vote for a real conservative who will work to bring back true conservative values to our schools, businesses and government. It’s our choice and our vote.
Detroit paperboy
Posted on January 4, 2012 at 11:49pmHey Barack, are u still on crack bro ??? only thing you that u have expanded regarding the middle class, is its DEMISE…. seriously bro, u must be smokin the rocks again…. Its almost to much to handle, if it wasnt so scarey and dangerous , it would be funny…..
Report Post »Quagaar Warrior
Posted on January 4, 2012 at 11:48pm~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Report Post »He’s a total bag of shiite!
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TSUNAMI-22
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 12:57amWhy are you disrespecting bags like that? :)
Report Post »nighttrainno9
Posted on January 4, 2012 at 11:47pmthe only class odumma is expanding is the poor and over taxed.
Report Post »He’s an idiot at this point, if he thinks anyone believes his B.S.
Only the stupid, braindamaged and people that pull his puppet strings
listen to anything the kenyan dummy has to say.
HumbleMan
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 6:26pmMy brain agrees with you … but my experience tells me there are plenty of lemmings (even folks who seem to be smart) that simply do not “get it”. May God save us from the useful idiots.
Report Post »vtxphantom
Posted on January 4, 2012 at 11:46pmImpeach this pile of cr**.!
Report Post »Quagaar Warrior
Posted on January 4, 2012 at 11:59pm~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Report Post »Don’t screw with impeachment. It would be quicker and cheaper to exile him back to his Kenyan kin!
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EastTexas
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 12:04amI have a better Idea.
Report Post »TSUNAMI-22
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 12:58am@ EastTexas
I have a better Idea.
Report Post »~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I like your idea.
BurntHills
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 1:08amwe AMERICANS all have the same idea about what to do with obama.
Report Post »Eliasim
Posted on January 4, 2012 at 11:45pmHo hum. We are where we are at today by way of going through our ancestors and the ancestors before them, and therefore there must have been a flaw in their understanding of raising children to get to where we are at. Therefore people now are far more flawed. How do people hope to get back to the fundamentals of America if people now are so flawed, that they can’t even get back to the understanding of their flawed ancestors before them?
Report Post »Eliasim
Posted on January 4, 2012 at 11:49pmYou look and you do not see, and say, “Let’s get back to the Constitution” and yet have no problem about having a number on your head like branded cattle.
Report Post »Eliasim
Posted on January 4, 2012 at 11:52pmNations come and nations go, and it‘s New Jerusalem that’s important.
Report Post »Eliasim
Posted on January 4, 2012 at 11:55pmIt really is sad that most Americans have come to associate having a number assigned to them with being a civilized society. That’s too bad because not even animals have numbers.
Report Post »BONETRAUMA
Posted on January 4, 2012 at 11:42pmBarry…u be nuts!
Report Post »geonj
Posted on January 4, 2012 at 11:40pmthis moron wants to take millionaires and billionaires and make them middle class? great way to grow our economy you fool.
Report Post »barber2
Posted on January 4, 2012 at 11:33pmSaul Alinski taught his organizers that in order to have their “revolution, ” they would have to attract the support of the middle class. Guess the Center For American Progress/ Obama / Soros crowd are all aboard that old Alinski Middle Class Express Bus. Wonder where the Erdogan team is sitting…
Report Post »teapartyconservatism
Posted on January 5, 2012 at 11:19amAlinsky can’t compete with Constitution!
Georgia judge denies president’s motion to dismiss eligibility challenge. Obama must meet constitutional qualifications to be on 2012 ballot!
Even assuming Obama was born in HI despite allegations by numerous experts that his birth certificate and social security number are fraudulent, his Kenyan father precludes Obama’s eligibility as a natural born citizen in violation of Article 2, Section 1.
This is confirmed by a logical reading of the Constitution; the 3rd Congress, “An act to establish an uniform rule of Naturalization; and to repeal the act heretofore passed on that subject,” 1/29/1795; 14th Amendment framer Rep. John Bingham; Supreme Court rulings; Senate Res. 511, 4/3/08; expert opinion of constitutional scholar and 30 year professor of constitutional law, Harvard graduate Dr. Herbert W. Titus; field grade military officers such as Major General Paul Vallely, U.S. Army, Ret., Col. Lawrence Sellin Ph.D., U.S. Army, Ret., former U.S. Army Lt. Col. Terry Lakin, MD.; Dr. Alan Keyes, US Ambassador, Ret.; and a host of concerned attorney’s such as Leo Donofrio, JD., Esq., Mario Apuzzo, JD., Esq., Dr. Orly Taitz, DDS., JD., Esq., and Van R Irion, JD., Founder Liberty Legal Foundation.
Glenn Beck needs to wake up! Since he thinks ignoring the Constitution is so damn funny, I decided canceling my subscription was funny too! How about you?
See http://www.obamabirthcertificate.net
Report Post »