His upcoming State of the Union speech on Tuesday night will lay out a litany of Democratic pipe dreams that have little chance of becoming law. But his proposals are popular with voters and, if he’s able to draw enough attention and his party picks up on them, could offer an early preview of 2016 election themes.
Obama’s tax plan: Middle-class credits, increases for rich
Top among those plans is one that would raise $320 billion over the next 10 years through a capital gains tax hike and new bank fees — and use that money to cover his $60 billion pitch for free two-year community college tuition and $175 billion in new tax benefits for the middle class.
It’s Obama’s opening offer in what he hopes will be a negotiation with Republican congressional leaders over a major tax overhaul — which Democrats also hope will free up money to fund some of their top priorities.
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Rubio said he supports the broad thrust of some of Obama’s ideas, like reforming higher education. But Obama’s plan, he said, would pour more money into a “broken, existing system,” rather than creating more competition and alternative certification programs.
“I wish he would spend more time on that, and less time trying to raise taxes and pour money into an outdated model that no longer works in the twenty first century,” Rubio said.
Other congressional Republicans were similarly critical. On CNN’s “State of the Union,” Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, called the President’s tax proposal “a non-starter.”
“We’re not just one good tax increase away from prosperity in this nation,” he said. “We have to make sure that we get a regulatory environment that’s predictable, that we bring those tax rates down and that we quit spending this money that we don’t have.”
