As a key note in yesterday’s State of the Union address, Barack Obama made the call for wealthy Americans to begin paying a minimum of 30% in tax, which is more than double the amount paid in 2010 by Republican Mitt Romney on his $22 million total income.
In a speech which was of course utilized mainly to offer a first insight into the president’s reelection campaign as a whole, Obama put forth what he referred to as a “blueprint for an economy that’s built to last” which included a range of enhanced measures against unethical trading practices from nations including China.
Improvements to the nation’s roads were also earmarked, as was the expansion of US gas and oil production, research into renewable energy, increased grants for working college students, small business tax relief, a minimum rate of tax for businesses conducting overseas manufacturing and extensive fees for major banks to allow more mortgage payers to refinance at the current rock-bottom rates.
“We can either settle for a country where a shrinking number of people do really well, while a growing number of Americans barely get by,’’ stated Obama during his address. “Or we can restore an economy where everyone gets a fair shot, everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same set of rules.”
He also went on to announce the creation of what he called create “a special unit of federal prosecutors and leading state attorneys general to expand our investigations into the abusive lending and packaging of risky mortgages that led to the housing crisis” which concerns a number of the biggest lenders in the US today, including Bank of America.
