Obama claims popular support for tax-cut stance

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama expressed confidence Monday that he can win an election-year fight with Republicans over taxes and the economy, despite three straight months of weak job growth.

Obama urged Congress to pass a one-year extension of the Bush-era tax cuts for most Americans, but aides said he would veto a bill that included providing relief to households earning $250,000 or more, as GOP congressional leaders and presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney want to do.

“Let’s not hold the vast majority of Americans hostage and our entire economy hostage while we debate the merits of another tax cut for the wealthy,” Obama said in the White House’s ornate East Room.

Obama’s appeal drew a disdainful response from Republicans on Capitol Hill.

“President Obama is still asleep at the switch when it comes to our economy and jobs,” said House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio.

Boehner spokesman Michael Steel noted that Obama made his pitch “just days after another dismal jobs report,” which showed the unemployment rate holding at 8.2 percent in June and the economy adding only 80,000 jobs during the month.

While Obama’s aides denied that his appeal was a political move aimed at distracting attention from Friday’s disappointing employment numbers for June, the president claimed broad political support for his refusal to back across-the-board tax relief after Dec. 31, when the Bush tax cuts are set to expire.

“The American people are with me on this,” he said. “Poll after poll shows that’s the case.”

Obama upped the ante by framing the November election as a referendum on his advocacy of middle-class tax cuts vs. Romney’s desire to extend tax relief to all Americans regardless of income.

“In many ways, the fate of the tax cut for the wealthiest Americans will be decided by the outcome of the next election,” Obama said. “My opponent will fight to keep them in place. I will fight to end them.”