UPDATE: Obama Holds Business Town Hall
President Obama will be attending a business town hall meeting today at noon, hosted by CNBC.
In what will be perhaps the most hostile audience the President has faced since he held off the entire Republican caucus singlehandedly prior to the passage of his health-care bill, he will be expected to answer tough questions from the financial industry.
Among those topics on the agenda from the business world are the Bush tax cuts for the rich which are scheduled to end after this year. President Obama has called for the extension of the Bush tax cuts on the middle class, or those making less than $250,000/year, but urged Congress to let the tax cuts for those making over $250,000 to end. According to the White House, allowing the tax rate on the richest 2% in the country to rise from 35.5% back to the Clinton era of 39.5% would help reduce the deficit by $700 billion dollars. They argue that to extend the tax cuts for the richest Americans could only be done by borrowing more money at a time when the deficit is already at $1.3 trillion.
Of the many other topics sure to be asked of the President some will be immigration (in relation to its benefits to the high tech industry), investment, and health-care costs.
Listen to the live town hall below (We'll have the video up in a couple of hours if our new software doesn't crash again. If it does I will be destroying it with prejudice and hope to have new software and equipment soon.):
UPDATE: Our software did in fact crash so I'll do the next best thing and embed some clips from CNBC for you to take a look at:
We'll try and get a transcript up and posted if possible.
In what will be perhaps the most hostile audience the President has faced since he held off the entire Republican caucus singlehandedly prior to the passage of his health-care bill, he will be expected to answer tough questions from the financial industry.
Among those topics on the agenda from the business world are the Bush tax cuts for the rich which are scheduled to end after this year. President Obama has called for the extension of the Bush tax cuts on the middle class, or those making less than $250,000/year, but urged Congress to let the tax cuts for those making over $250,000 to end. According to the White House, allowing the tax rate on the richest 2% in the country to rise from 35.5% back to the Clinton era of 39.5% would help reduce the deficit by $700 billion dollars. They argue that to extend the tax cuts for the richest Americans could only be done by borrowing more money at a time when the deficit is already at $1.3 trillion.
Of the many other topics sure to be asked of the President some will be immigration (in relation to its benefits to the high tech industry), investment, and health-care costs.
Listen to the live town hall below (We'll have the video up in a couple of hours if our new software doesn't crash again. If it does I will be destroying it with prejudice and hope to have new software and equipment soon.):
UPDATE: Our software did in fact crash so I'll do the next best thing and embed some clips from CNBC for you to take a look at:
We'll try and get a transcript up and posted if possible.
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