United Liberty

With the push for tax hikes on higher-income earners in full swing, a new report from Citigroup shows that President Barack Obama’s plan is not going to avoid another recession. Via James Pethokoukis, the table below shows that even with extending the tax cuts for lower and middle class Americans, we can still expect a 2.9% contraction in the economy:

Unfortunately, the White House and Democrats in Congress aren’t interesting in deal-making. In fact, they’re threatening to let the country go over the “fiscal cliff” if they don’t get their way on taxes.

President Obama would rather travel the country promoting class warfare — and that’s exactly what it is, playing off the whims of Americans that simply don’t know any better. President Obama says that $1 trillion has already been cut from the budget as part of the budget deal last year, but members from both parties are actively trying to roll back those cuts. What’s more, our budget deficit will clear $1 trillion for the fourth year in a row and the national debt is edging close to $16 trillion.

As was explained here recently, the Congressional Budget Office confirmed that higher-income earners — those that President Obama is targeting — already a pay much more than their share of income. Using the information provided by the CBO, the Heritage Foundation provides this chart showing the income break down against the share of taxes paid by each quintile:

Even one of President Obama’s top bundlers isn’t buying into the rhetoric. As the Washington Examiner notes, R. Donahue Peebles recently told the Huffington Post that the attacks on higher-income earners are “unfair and dillusional.” And he’s right.

And if this whole ruse were really about ensuring that the middle class is “preserved,” or whatever term you want to use, why isn’t President Obama pushing for permanent extention? That’s right, folks, the tax cuts that the White House wants to extend will last for only one year. In 2014, all tax cuts are erased and we’re all paying Clinton-era tax rates.