President Obama on Monday unveiled his plan for deficit reduction and threatened to veto any plan that cuts Medicare without requiting the wealthy to pay more in taxes.
In his Rose Garden announcement, Obama said, "Either we gut education and medical research or we have to reform the tax code" to eliminate loopholes. He responded to Republican criticism by saying that his deficit reduction plan is "not class warfare, it’s math."
Leading up to Obama’s speech, Republicans invoked the phrase “class warfare” to describe what Obama is calling the “Buffett Rule,” which would ensure that the wealthiest Americans pay a higher tax rate than the middle class. The rule is named after billionaire investor Warren Buffett who has long called for Washington to raise taxes on the wealthy.
