SOTU Preview: Obama to Pitch Plan to Raise Taxes on the Wealthy

President Obama appears as though he’s not about to take the whole lame-duck thing (not to mention the Republican-lockdown-on-Congress thing) sitting down, given his outline for Tuesday’s State of the Union address.

The president is guaranteed to encounter considerable resistance from an emboldened GOP-run House and Senate with his proposal to raise taxes on wealthy Americans, as the BBC sketched out on Sunday:

According to US officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, the plans include:

• Closing a loophole allowing the wealthiest Americans to pass on certain assets tax free

• Raising capital gains tax on the richest earners from 23.8% to 28%

• New fees on US financial firms with more than $50 billion (£33 billion) in assets

The revenues would raise more than enough to fund the proposed benefits for the middle class, according to the officials.

These include tripling child tax credits, help for families with two working spouses and extra incentives to save for retirement.

The increases would primarily impact the richest 1 percent of American taxpayers. Freshman Sen. Joni Ernst has her work cut out for her in delivering the GOP rebuttal to the president’s annual address.

–Posted by Kasia Anderson