FOXNews.com: SELLING — OR SOLVING? Obama Kicks Off Tax Hike Campaign

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SELLING — OR SOLVING? Obama Kicks Off Tax Hike Campaign Nov 28th 2012, 15:35 Republicans are questioning why President Obama is using campaign-style events to pitch his plan for tax increases to solve the looming debt crisis even as the White House and lawmakers are engaged in bipartisan talks behind closed doors. Texas Sen. John Cornyn joined a chorus of Republican leaders appealing to the president to get engaged in negotiations, noting Obama has no public plan for cuts while continuing to blast Republicans' demand to extend tax cuts for all Americans. On Wednesday, the president was to ramp up his public pitch amid a backdrop of hand-picked, middle-class voters at the White House. But Cornyn and others urged him to instead focus on negotiations for a balanced plan that includes more tax revenues along with deep spending cuts. "All that Republicans are asking is to maintain the current rates until we adopt real bipartisan tax reform," Cornyn said in an editorial Wednesday in the Dallas Morning News.   The president's public plan so fare is to extend the Bush-era tax cuts for the 98 percent of Americans who earn less than $250,000 per year. The plan would result in taxes increases for the county's highest earners who Republicans say have the ability to create jobs. "We cannot tax our way back to budget surpluses and economic prosperity," Cornyn also said. "Without major spending cuts and entitlement reforms, we will continue running huge deficits, regardless of what we do on the revenue side." The White House and Congress are trying to reach a deal before Jan. 1 – when all of the Bush-era tax cuts are set to expire and huge reductions to the federal budget kick in automatically. Those spending cuts are part of a default agreement by Congress after it failed reach a more measured agreement on home to reduce the roughly $1.3 trillion annual deficits which have brought the national debt to more than $16 trillion. The mix of tax increased and budget cuts will equal roughly $100 billion alone next year and about $1.2 trillion over the next 10 years should Congress and the White House fail to reach a deal. Some economist say that could plunge the economy into a recession. While Republicans have acknowledged a need for tax changes to generate revenue to cut the deficit, they argue Obama and other Democratic leaders have failed to say exactly where they would make cuts to such entitlements as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. "We cannot keep postponing structural changes to our largest entitlement programs," Cornyn added. "And unless we are happy with a tax code that wastes economic resources, stifles job creation and promotes crony capitalism, we cannot keep delaying genuine tax reform." The president also will be joined Wednesday at the White House by business executives to discuss his strategy. Among the chief executive officers scheduled to attend the event are Muhtar Kent of Coca-Cola, Home Depot's Frank Blake and Brian Roberts of Comcast. Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn told Fox News on Wednesday he was indifferent to the president campaigning, saying that was essentially okay as long as White House negotiators were agreeing to a balanced plan. Earlier this week, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell urged Obama to present a plan that "goes beyond the talking points of the campaign trail." The president also is using social media to make is argument. The White House plans to promote (hashtag)My2K on Twitter and other social media — a reference to the estimated $2,200 tax increase that a typical middle-class family of four would see if the Bush tax cuts expire. And Obama on Friday is hosting a rally in the Philadelphia area where he is scheduled to lay out his plan. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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