President Obama called on Congress Friday to finally approve his proposals to boost infrastructure spending, close tax loopholes and ratify a massive trade agreement with 11 other Pacific Rim nations.
Obama appeared in the White House briefing room to continue his economic victory lap, just after government data was released showing that the country just concluded its 74th consecutive month of private-sector job growth. He also reminded voters how he took office at a point at which the U.S. economy was on the verge of collapsing.
Obama called on Republicans to do more to kick-start the economy during his impromptu news conference on Friday.
If congressional Republicans “joined us to take some steps that are pretty common sense, then we could put some additional wind at the backs of working Americans,” Obama said.
He pointed to the work needed in Flint, Mich., where he visited on Wednesday, to update its municipal water system as a prime example of the type of infrastructure project available that the federal government could fund to both stimulate the economy and help the nation’s cities’ aging infrastructures.
“It was a great example of the kind of work that is out there to be done,” Obama said. “And we could be putting people all across this country back to work with huge multiplier effects across the economy if we started investing.”
He called on Congress to raise the minimum wage and close tax loopholes, even as he acknowledged that a major revamping of the tax code is far off.
“I think it’s fair to say that Congress will not act on a big tax reform plan before the election that would shut down some of these loopholes,” he said.
“But what my administration has been doing is to look for steps that we can take on our own to make the tax system fair,” he said, alluding to his administration’s recent rules on blocking corporate inversions and Friday’s crackdown on money laundering and tax dodging.
“Only Congress can fully close the loopholes that wealthy individuals and powerful corporations all too often take advantage of, often at the expense of middle-class families,” Obama said. “If they’re getting out of paying their fair share of taxes, that means that the rest of us have to shoulder that burden.”
Obama noted his administration’s crackdown on foreigners avoiding U.S. taxes and Americans hiding income overseas comes shortly after the Panama Papers illustrated how tax evasion and money laundering are major global problems.
“If we can combine the actions that we’re taking administratively with the new tools that I’m asking Congress to provide the Justice Department and Treasury, these actions will prevent tax invasion; they’ll prevent money laundering; they’ll prevent terrorist financing; and they’ll, most importantly, uphold a fundamental principle of our economy,” Obama said.
