Rob Portman’s Take On Obama And Taxes

Rob Portman, who confirmed recently that he is being vetted by Mitt Romney’s campaign team as the possible GOP VP nominee, believes that the debate should be focused on comprehensive tax reform, instead of on the Bush-era tax cuts.

The Washington Post reports that Portman’s speech came at the same time as President Obama renewed his call to Congress to extend the Bush0era tax cuts on income of $250,000 and less.

According to a speech transcript, Portman stated:

“Look, I think we ought to reform the whole tax code. We shouldn’t be debating whether to deal with the current code by allowing it to be extended or not. We should have a president who shows leadership and comes to Congress and says: ‘You know what? We need to reform this whole tax code.’”

According to his speech, Rob Portman believes that Obama’s proposal to extend the tax cuts for those who make less than $250,000 but allow them to expire for the wealthiest Americans is simply a “campaign agenda item,” which is designed to divide Americans, reports Newsmax.

In an exclusive interview with Newsmax, the Republican from Ohio explained, “It’s clearly politics for the president. He knows it can’t pass.” He went on to say:

“The concern about it for someone like me who is a small business owner is that most companies in America organize through the individual tax code, not the corporate tax code. And if they are a successful small business they might make more than $218,000 a year, which is the cutoff the president decides to use. Over half the employees in America work for these kinds of companies.”

Both Rob Portman and House Speaker John Boehner believe that President Obama’s call to allow the Bush-era tax cuts to expire for those making more than $250,000 were simply class warfare tactics.

Do you think that Rob Portman’s assessment of the tax situation is correct, or is Obama doing more than employing class warfare tactics?