Tax Cuts, Middle Class | featured news

President Obama's latest television ad hits Mitt Romney over his tax cut plans, saying they will lead to tax hikes for the middle class.

The Senate narrowly approved legislation on Wednesday to extend Bush-era tax cuts for the middle class but to let them lapse for more affluent households, in a surprise vote intended more to give both parties election-year cover than to produce a new tax law.

Tax cuts that President George W. Bush signed in 2001 and 2003 are playing a major role in the election of 2012. They surface again today as the Democratic-run Senate holds a symbolic debate over President Obama's proposal to extend the Bush tax cuts only for middle-class Americans, not for the wealthy.

President Obama told Americans on Monday he wants Congress to extend tax cuts for the country's middle class while letting them rise on high income earners. As he attempts to turn voters' attention from the stagnant unemployment numbers — now standing at 8.2% — and limp economic recovery, Obama spoke at the White House as he made an opening campaign pitch for continuing middle class tax relief.

Republicans in the Senate on Saturday blocked Democratic legislation that would renew low tax rates for individuals' income up to $200,000 and families' income up to $250,000, letting them rise for the wealthiest.

The House of Representatives, in the waning days of Democratic control, passed an extension on Thursday of Bush-era tax cuts for the lower and middle classes in a symbolic vote that would let tax cuts for the wealthiest expire.

The top Republican in the House said on Sunday he would support an extension of tax cuts for middle-class Americans even if tax cuts for the wealthy are allowed to expire.