The White House Blog: The President

From the Archives: Ruby Bridges Visits the White House

One year ago today, President Obama got a visit from an icon of the civil rights movement. Ruby Bridges was at the White House to see how a painting that commemorates a personal and historic milestone looked hanging on the wall outside of the Oval Office. Norman Rockwell  was so inspired by the image of the six year old  being escorted to her first day in a formerly segregated kindergarten by four U.S. marshals amidst signs of protest and fearful ignorance that he painted it for the cover of Look magazine. 

When Ruby Bridges visited the Oval Office on July 15, President Obama told her, "I think it's fair to say that if it wasn't for you guys, I wouldn't be here today." 

Watch Ruby Bridges' visit with the President.

Health Care and the House of Representatives: By the Numbers

The health care law President Obama signed in 2010 is already making a positive difference in the lives of millions of Americans. 6.6 million young adults have health insurance on their parent’s plan. 5.3 million people with Medicare saved $3.7 billion on their prescription drugs. And 54 million Americans have had their private insurance plan expand to cover preventive services without co-payments or deductibles.

But rather than move on and act on the President’s plans to cut taxes and strengthen the economy, today House Republicans voted to repeal the health care law. And this is far from the first time Congressional Republicans have chosen to re-fight old political battles:

• Today’s vote in the House marks the 33^rd time House Republicans have voted to roll back the health care law.
• Since being sworn in, the House has voted in 15 of 19 months to “repeal, defund, or dismantle” the Affordable Care Act.
• The House has voted to “repeal, defund, or dismantle” the Affordable Care Act nearly 2 times a month on average.

The last thing Congress should do is start over on health care by raising taxes on the middle class and repealing the entire law. Instead, Congress should enact the President’s proposal which extends the current tax rates for every single American family on their first $250,000 of income, ensuring that middle class families don’t see a tax hike at the end of the year.

Extending Middle Class Tax Cuts for 98% of Americans and 97% of Small Businesses

President Barack delivers a statement on the need for Congress to act to extend tax cuts for middle class families, in the East Room of the White House, July 9, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Today the President called on Congress to extend the middle class tax cuts for the 98 percent of Americans making less than $250,000 for another year. In fact, the President’s proposal extends tax cuts for 97 percent of all small business owners in America.  If Congress fails to act, a typical middle-class family of four will see its taxes go up by $2,200, and America’s small business owners would take a big hit. The President refuses to let that happen.

This should be one of those rare moments where everyone in Washington can agree. Independent experts, economists, and folks on both side of the aisle agree that we should extend tax cuts for middle class families. But so far, Congress hasn’t been able to extend middle class tax cuts because Republicans in Washington refuse to ask the wealthy and big corporations to pay their fair share. In fact, on every issue – from reducing the deficit in a balanced way to paying for investments in education – Republican insistence on cutting taxes for millionaires and billionaires has been the major cause of gridlock in Washington.

So, we look forward to a debate on tax cuts for the wealthy, but right now Congress should act to give middle class families the certainty and security of knowing their taxes won’t go up in six months.

As the President said, if Congress passes a bill extending the tax cuts for the middle class, he’ll sign it tomorrow. It’s time for Congress to get to work.

Unfortunately, Republicans continue to push their tired, false claims to distort and distract the American people.  We’ve already heard some folks opposing this proposal -- claiming we’re trying to tax “job creators.”  The fact is, the people who create most new jobs in America are America’s small business owners.  The President has cut taxes for small business owners 18 times. Even using an overly broad definition of who is a small business owner (a definition that includes passive investors and highly compensated lawyers and hedge fund managers), today’s proposal will extend all of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts for 97 percent of all small business owners. 

If Republicans in Congress want to act to help small businesses across the country, they should vote for the proposals the President proposed that the Senate is considering this week that include new incentives to help our nation’s small businesses grow and hire and strengthen our economy. 

Weekly Address: Pushing Congress to Create Jobs, Keep College in Reach for Middle Class

President Obama discusses legislation he signed on Friday that does two important things: It keeps thousands of construction workers on the job rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure, and it stops interest rates on federal loans from doubling this year for more than seven million students. 

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