While the White House says President Obama has no plans to watch tonight’s Republican presidential debate, he did weigh in with a harsh assessment of the candidates, charging that they were “talking down America”.
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White House press secretary Josh Earnest on Wednesday claimed Obama was not singling out Trump in his remarks, saying they “apply to a significant number of candidates in the Republican field”.
President Barack Obama will urge Congress to avoid another contentious budget showdown in the coming weeks as he speaks to business executives on Wednesday. While Obama did so, he criticized Republicans in Congress for “playing chicken” with the federal budget because of the GOP’s opposition to federal funding for Planned Parenthood, which consumes a tiny fraction of the $18 trillion federal budget. Bush followed suit with a salvo against the carried interest provisions, although it was part of a comprehensive tax reform plan that included lower taxes across all income brackets and a reduction in the corporate tax rate. He also pointed to a potential revenue source to pay for some of the increased investments he wants in infrastructure, education and scientific research – taxing so-called “carried interest” as ordinary income rather than as a capital gain, which is taxed at a lower rate.
Obama did have some similarly vague praise for one aspect of Trump’s campaign, however.
Obama delivered a tough message to China on cyber issues just ahead of Chinese President Xi Jingping’s visit to Washington next week, calling China’s efforts to steal trade secrets or proprietary information from private companies an “act of aggression that has to stop”.
Obama’s remarks came seven years after the Wall Street crash and he called the subsequent economic recovery “a testament to American business and innovation”. “On the other hand, if we closed the loophole, we could double the workers’ in America’s job training programs”.
He said the administration is still in talks with Ryan and New York Democratic Senator Charles Schumer, who is poised to become the party’s leader in the chamber, on reworking the USA tax code. He has threatened to veto every spending bill Republicans have produced so far because they would provide less money for the government than he requested. “America’s great right now”, Mr. Obama said, quickly adding, “We can do even better”. Obama did so by turning around Trump’s slogan, “Make America Great Again”.
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Earlier on Tuesday, the leaders of the Business Roundtable said that eliminating uncertainty over government funding and other fiscal matters was a top priority for the group. “Anyone take a look at the Russian economy lately?”
