'Obama would veto any extension of tax cut on the rich'

"The President would veto, as he has said and I and others have said for quite some time, any bill that extends the Bush-era tax cuts for the top two per cent of wage earners in this country, of earners in this country," the White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters at a news conference yesterday.

Carney's remarks came moments after Obama made his maiden public appearance at the White House after his re-election and called for increasing the tax on the rich while asserting that he would not let any tax increase on the middle class.

"What the President made clear again today and has said for quite some time is that he would sign, right now, the bill that passed the Senate that extends tax cuts for 98 per cent of the American people," Carney said.

"This is a simple and easy way to address a large chunk of the uncertainty created by the so-called fiscal cliff, for those who don't engage in Beltway parlance -- by the series of deadlines that include expiration of these tax cuts that would cause uncertainty and damage to the economy if they¿re not dealt with," he said.

Extending those tax cuts for 98 per cent of the American people would deal with more than half, in dollar terms, of the impact caused by the fiscal cliff, he said. "There are

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