Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann says President Obama’s call to raise taxes on wealthy Americans will hit middle-class business owners and lead to a reduction in jobs.  

“President Obama’s definition of a billionaire is a small business owner that’s making $200,000 a year in his business,” Bachmann said earlier this morning during an interview with KRIB Radio in Mason City. “Those are called the employers and, again, the president really misunderstands where jobs come from. Most of the jobs come from small businesses and small businesses run their income through their business and these are the businesses that will end up being taxed and it will mean fewer jobs.”

Obama has cited Omaha billionaire Warren Buffett as an example, as Buffett has said his tax rate a couple of years ago was 17 percent on his $46 million in income, compared to the 29 percent tax rate Buffett’s secretary paid on her $60,000 annual income.  Obama plans to ask congress to require anyone who makes more than a million dollars a year to pay the same tax rate as the middle class.  Bachmann opposes the move.

“If Warren Buffett wants to pay more in taxes, he should just go ahead and write a check to the United States Government and be done with it,” Bachmann said. “…If President Obama’s plan worked, I’d be all for it, but the problem is it doesn’t work. He’s already tried this before in the trillion dollar stimulus. It didn’t work. Now he wants to do it with half a trillion dollars and it’s not going to work any better.”

The plan President Obama laid out this morning calls for $1.5 trillion in new taxes as part of a deficit reduction effort. The proposal ends the Bush-era tax cuts for high income Americans and limits deductions. Obama argues the wealthy need to pay their fair share. 

Bachmann’s due to hold a roundtable discussion with employees at Sukup Manufacturing in Sheffield shortly after noon today, then she’ll hold another roundtable with workers at a Waterloo business sometime after three o’clock.

(Reporting in Mason City by Bob Fisher of KRIB; writing & editing in Des Moines by Radio Iowa’s O. Kay Henderson)