President Barack Obama is introducing acts and taxes that he said could help put Americans back to work and cut the national budget by $1.5 trillion, but many Republicans are openly against his plans.
In August 2011, the United States was reported to have a 9.1 percent unemployment rate, a number that stayed the same since July 2011. On Sept. 8, President Barack Obama introduced the American Jobs Act to Congress in hopes that it will help to create more jobs and improve the unemployment rating if passed.
However, according to the UCLA Anderson quarterly forecast of the unemployment rating released Tuesday, unemployment is expected to remain around 12 percent through 2012, in the state of California, which has the largest population, according to the 2010 Census.
New York State, the state with the second largest population, according to the 2010 Census, had a unemployment rate of 8.0 in August, whether it is projected to go down in the next year is still to be seen.
Representatives of the Republican Party are using these numbers, issued on Sept. 16, to prove that Obama’s economic policies have not been working, and the American Jobs Act will follow suit.
Republican’s were also quick to denounce Obama’s new ‘Buffett Rule’ announced on Sept.19, which could cut $1.5 trillion out of the budget. Republicans are calling the rule “class warfare.”
The proposal would introduce a new tax rate for millionaires, where they would pay at least the same rate as the middle class. This tax rate would effect individuals making more than $1 million a year.
President Barak Obama introduced a new tax proposal, called the "Buffett Rule," after Warren E. Buffett, above, who things that millionaires should be taxed the same as the working middle class.
The proposal is named after Warren E. Buffett, a billionaire investor who said it is wrong that the richest Americans pay less in taxes than middle-class workers since investment gains are taxed at a lower rate than wages.
Some believe that Republican representatives are against this tax because they will be the ones effected.
However, John Boehner, the speaker of the House, said that tax increases are just not a viable option and that they destroy jobs.