WASHINGTON — So that’s what a cliff looks like.
President Obama — whom Republicans accuse of playing around instead of negotiating as the nation careens toward the fiscal cliff — visited a Pennsylvania toy factory yesterday to pitch his plan to hike taxes on the wealthy.
He delivered a campaign-style speech after touring the factory floor, where he peered at a colorful K’NEX construction set assembled into roller coasters and a Ferris wheel whose cars teetered on the edge of a steep plunge.
Obama then cast himself as a tough-talking Santa, complete with his own list of who deserves gifts this year, and those who don’t.
“I’ve been keeping my own naughty and nice list for Washington,” Obama said. “So you should keep your eye on who gets some K’NEX this year.
“There are going to be some members of Congress who get them, and some who don’t,” he said at the plant outside Philly.
Without action by the end of the month, all of the Bush-era tax rates will expire, and $1.2 trillion in spending cuts to defense and non-defense budgets will begin to be implemented.
“That’s sort of like the lump of coal you get for Christmas,” Obama said. “That’s a Scrooge Christmas.”
He repeated his push for the House to take up a Senate-passed bill to extend expiring tax cuts for families earning less than $250,000 a year.
“I’ve got a bunch of pens, and I’m ready to sign this bill,” he said.
Obama’s insistence on raising tax rates on families earning more than $250,000 a year drew another sharp rebuke from House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), who said it would deliver a “crippling blow” to the economy.
Boehner said that the negotiations over the looming tax hikes and spending cuts known as the fiscal cliff were going “almost nowhere” because Obama had offered a deal that would spend more money than it cuts from the debt.
“There’s a stalemate,” Boehner said at the Capitol. “. Let’s not kid ourselves: Right now we’re almost nowhere.
“They want to have extra spending that’s actually more than the amount they want to cut. of Obama’s plan It’s not a serious proposal.”
Obama’s proposal for averting the fiscal cliff calls for hiking tax rates from 35 percent to 39.6 percent for families making over $250,000 a year and other tax increases that will bring in about $1.6 trillion over 10 years, while offering nearly $400 billion in spending cuts.
The tax increases for the rich would net about $850 billion over 10 years and higher rates on capital gains and inheritance taxes would bring in another $750 billion over 10 years. Obama also wants $50 billion in stimulus spending and other measures in the deal.
Boehner repeated his offer to increase tax revenue by closing loopholes and eliminating deductions for special interests, but stood firm against Obama’s call to raise income-tax rates for top earners.