Obama remains firm on taxing rich

President Barack Obama and Republicans crept closer to talks on avoiding a recession-threatening package of automatic tax increases and spending cuts, but the White House insisted it would not budge on higher taxes on the wealthy.

To drive home the point, Mr Obama pressed his hard line on tax increases for the rich from the basement of a family’s home in suburban northern Virginia yesterday, declaring they would suffer economically if Washington did not extend tax cuts for the 98% of American families earning less than 250,000 dollars a year.