FAREWELL, GABBY: President Obama hugs Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who announced she’s resigning her seat a year after a madman shot her. (Getty Images)
HIS ‘FAIR’ LADY: Warren Buffett’s secretary, Debbie Bosanek, and Steve Jobs’ widow, Laurene Powell Jobs, listen to President Obama’s address last night. The president cited Bosanek, who pays a higher percentage of her pay in taxes than her boss, in a call for “fairness.” (
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WASHINGTON — President Obama last night kicked off an election-year battle over taxing the rich by inviting billionaire Warren Buffett’s secretary to his State of the Union speech.
The stunt, seating secretary Debbie Bosanek behind First Lady Michelle Obama, was a reminder to the national TV audience that rich guys like Buffett pay lower tax rates than secretaries and clerical workers.
“Right now, because of loopholes and shelters in the tax code, a quarter of all millionaires pay lower tax rates than millions of middle-class households,” Obama said as cameras turned to Bosanek in the gallery. “Right now, Warren Buffett pays a lower tax rate than his secretary.”
Bosanek became the poster girl of Democrats who want to raise taxes on the rich after Buffett wrote a newspaper column last summer lambasting a system that would have her pay higher tax rates than he does.
“Now, you can call this class warfare all you want. But asking a billionaire to pay at least as much as his secretary in taxes? Most Americans would call that common sense,” Obama said.
PODHORETZ: GOP OUT TO BE LICKING ITS CHOPS
Seated next to Bosanek was Laurene Powell Jobs, the wife of the late Apple pioneer Steve Jobs.
Inviting Bosanek to the speech was also a clear poke at chief GOP millionaire rival Mitt Romney, who early yesterday released his tax returns showing that he paid taxes at rate of just 15 percent last year.
Obama revealed that he wants Congress to enact a new “Buffett rule” to require anyone earning more than $1 million to pay an effective tax rate of 30 percent.
Speaker John Boehner chided Obama for practicing the “politics of envy,” calling the Buffett rule a “gimmick.”
After a speech filled with campaign overtones, Obama plans to jet to key swing states beginning today to sell his plan.
Last night, Obama also:
* Announced the creation of a special trade unit to enforce “unfair trade practices in countries like China” — although just days ago he talked about consolidating trade agencies to save cash.
* Called on every state to make sure all their students stay in school until they’re 18 or graduate, but didn’t propose any incentives or punishments to encourage it. About 20 states do so now.
* Pledged that “I will not walk away from clean energy,” but didn’t mention the Solyndra scandal that cost taxpayers up to $500 million.
* Called for passing a full-year payroll-tax-cut extension with “no side issues, no drama.”
Obama tailored much of his speech to two fundamentals of the election: high unemployment and a Congress with worse approval ratings than his own.
“As long as I’m president, I will work with anyone in this chamber to build on this momentum. But I intend to fight obstruction with action, and I will oppose any effort to return to the very same policies that brought on this economic crisis in the first place,” he said.
He told Congress: “Take the money we’re no longer spending at war, use half of it to pay down our debt, and use the rest to do some nation-building right here at home.”
But Republicans cast aside the rhetoric, promising to make the election squarely about Obama.
“Make no mistake about it, the election will be about his performance over the last three years,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).