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Obama to meet with middle-class family to push deficit plan
President Obama is meeting with a middle-class family in Northern Virginia on Thursday as part of his public pitch to extend the Bush-era tax rates for all but the highest income earners.
The visit, first reported by The Associated Press, comes as Obama and congressional Republicans are at loggerheads over raising tax rates on the wealthy as part of a deficit-reduction plan to avoid the looming "fiscal cliff."
Obama has sought to put public pressure on the GOP, arguing that if a deal is not reached, middle-class families will be hit on average by a $2,000 tax hike in 2013.
A member of the family participated in the White House's #My2k Twitter campaign supporting an extension of the Bush-era rates for all but the top 2 percent of income owners, according to CNN.
Obama is also taking his push on tax rates on the road, traveling to Detroit, Mich., on Monday to deliver a speech in which he will warn that failing to avoid the fiscal cliff could deliver a severe economic blow to middle-class families.
Tax rates and automatic spending cuts are set to take effect in January if lawmakers and Obama fail to agree on a deficit-cutting plan, with economists warning of a new recession.
As the deadline nears, both sides appear deadlocked on a solution, with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner warning yesterday that the administration was "absolutely" willing to let the nation go over the cliff if GOP leaders failed to concede on higher rates for the wealthy.
On Wednesday Obama briefly spoke with Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) about the ongoing talks.
Republicans recently unveiled their $2.2 trillion deficit-reduction proposal, which includes roughly $800 billion in additional tax revenues. Obama and top Democrats dismissed the proposal, which shutters loopholes and deductions to produce the new revenue but does not raise rates on the wealthy.
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