Obama Highlights Tax Breaks

From The WashingtonPost.com:

President Obama marked Tax Day 2009 with a White House event aimed at highlighting the tax breaks included in the stimulus bill and countering conservatives who launched nationwide tea parties to complain about taxes and rising government spending.

While a few hundred protestors dumped tea bags in Lafayette Square outside the White House, Obama presented nine taxpayers he said were better off financially because of his efforts.

"We have passed a broad and sweeping tax cut for 95 percent of American workers," Obama told reporters in the Old Executive Office building. "This tax cut was a core focus of my campaign, it was a core component of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and it is the most progressive tax cut in American history. And starting April 1st,
Americans saw this tax cut in the extra money that they took home with each paycheck."

In documents released to reporters, Obama touted 10 tax cuts that Americans are receiving as part of the government's overall effort to spur growth and consumer spending. Chief among those, he said, is a tax credit appearing now in people's pay checks and a first-time homebuyers tax credit.

He called the pay check tax cut "the most progressive tax cut in American history" and said it would help create a half-million jobs.

"For too long, we've seen taxes used as a wedge to scare people into supporting policies that increased the burden on working people instead of helping them live their dreams," he said. "That has to change."

The message from conservatives was very different, attacking Obama and Democrats in Congress for spending too much and failing to cut the tax burdens enough for most people.