Obama Renews Push for Tax Hikes on ‘Millionaires and Billionaires’

Calling for a balanced approach, President Barack Obama on Friday reiterated his proposal to reduce spending and raise taxes while increasing the nations debt ceiling.

Running up against an Aug. 2 deadline on the debt ceiling, Obama asked Republicans to offer their plan within the next 24-to-36 hours.

If we cant do the big deal, lets at least try to get a down payment on deficit reduction and send a signal we are serious, Obama told a press conference at the White House.

Republicans countered that the country needed a plan from the president, not a speech.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has offered a fallback plan that would allow the president to raise the debt ceiling on a short-term basis.

But other Republicans, led by U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, decried both positions and accused the GOP leadership of capitulation.

As long as Speaker [John] Boehner refuses to take a clear stand in support of only passing a debt ceiling if a strict cut, cap and balance plan is also enacted, then he's just playing let's make a deal with America's future, said Paul, who is making his third run for president.

Obama warned that failure to raise the $14.6 trillion debt ceiling would put the nation into default and could raise consumer interest rates which would effectively be a tax hike.

He blamed Republicans for the impasse, saying they had "boxed themselves in ideologically."

Though declining to provide specifics, the president said his balanced approach would include Medicare reform, up to $4 trillion in discretionary spending cuts and a host of revenue increases [on] millionaires and billionaires.

Republicans say they are united in opposing any tax hikes and support passage of a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution a move that Obama opposes.