Federal Deficit, Tax Cuts For The Rich | featured news

President Barack Obama continues to oppose extending Bush-era tax cuts for wealthier Americans, the White House said on Wednesday, shrugging off calls from some Democrats for a temporary extension to make more time for a deal on deficits.

A long-running war between Democrats and Republicans over Bush-era tax cuts doomed the debt supercommittee's chances of reaching a deal. Efforts to overhaul the tax code may await the same fate as both parties gear up to make taxes a central issue in 2012 elections....

President Barack Obama pressed his case on Saturday for achieving deficit reduction, in part by ending tax breaks and singling out hedge fund managers, oil companies and billionaires to take the hit.

Regardless of any tax concessions President Obama achieves, the end result would favor Republican goals of cutting spending and government services. Even as the political battle mounts over federal spending, the end result for federal policy is already visible — and clearly favors Republican goals of deep spending cuts and drastically fewer government services.

President Barack Obama pressed his case Wednesday that tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans must be ended as part of a deficit deal, which he said he believed Republicans and Democrats would reach.

The former chairman of the Federal Reserve said keeping the cuts would drive up borrowing costs and could lead to another financial crisis.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Sunday disputed claims that allowing a portion of the Bush tax cuts to expire will choke economic growth, saying the government needs to do the "responsible" thing and show the world it is capable of tackling the deficit.