Obama Offers Bold Tax Proposals in State of the Union

President Barack Obama offered a series of bold economic and tax proposals in his State of the Union address Tuesday night —- including a 30% minimum tax on millionaires — that promises to be as controversial as it is ambitious for a president in the final year of a first term.

Jim Watson | AFP | Getty Images President Obama delivers his 2012  State of the Union speech.

At the same time, the President omitted key details from his proposals that made it difficult to gauge their true impact.

A senior administration official said many of the blanks would be offered in the next few days and weeks.

The official acknowledged that some of the president’s economic proposals were designed as negotiating positions for later compromise with Republicans.

Among the key proposals:

• A minimum 30 percent minimum tax on Americans earning incomes of $1 million or more. The president for the first time tonight put a percentage on the so-called Buffet Rule, which he says is designed to ensure that wealthy Americans pay a higher tax rate than middle-class Americans.
• The president for the first time proposed eliminating tax deductions for Americans with $1 million-plus incomes for housing, health care, retirement and child care.
• An unspecified tax on foreign corporate earnings. The president believes the proposal will eliminate an incentive to send jobs overseas.
• A new tax credit to cover moving expenses for companies that bring jobs back to the US.
• A plan to ask Congress for legislation allow homeowners stuck paying above-market interest rates to refinance into lower rate FHA loans.

Asked how the president justifies increasing the tax burden on the wealthy, the senior administration officials said that deficit reduction will fall most heavily on transfer payments to middle class and poor Americans.

He said the president believes the burden of reducing the deficit should fall most heavily on those most able to pay.