The chairman of the Republican National Committee flew into Iowa today to give a “pre-buttal” to President Obama’s speech in Cedar Rapids. Reince Priebus called Obama’s call to keep the Bush era tax cuts intact only for those who make less than a quarter of a million dollars a year an “absolute sham.”
“The problem with his calculation, that he knows full well, is that his tax increase is going to affect about 850,000 small businesses across America,” Priebus told Radio Iowa. “I think we all understand that we can’t raise taxes on small businesses, even if the president wants to couch it as small business owners are rich people. We don’t agree with that.”
According to the Obama campaign, the president will tell the crowd in Cedar Rapids early this afternoon that he wants to grow the economy “from the middle out, not the top down.” Obama is meeting over the noon-hour with a middle class Cedar Rapids family that would see their annual federal tax bill go up by 22-hundred dollars if the Bush tax cuts aren’t extended. The Republican National Committee chairman counters that there are “very few people who are better off today” than they were four years ago.
“He’s made everything worse for everybody…no matter where you fit into the spectrum,” Priebus said.
Obama’s Iowa campaign released a statement, saying “Mitt Romney’s tax plan is based on the idea that our economy grows from the top down.” The Obama camp accuses Romney of favoring “deep” tax cuts for the wealthiest and perhaps even fostering a “secret plan to raise taxes on middle class Iowans” because Romney’s tax plan would balloon the federal deficit, according to Obama’s campaign.