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Republicans promised that if the rich got a massive tax break, it would boost the economy and that wealth would trickle down to the rest of us. while we've seen what a decade of bush tax cutting did to the whole country, today president obama took another step toward repairing the damage. he called on congress to let the bush tax cuts expire for the wealthiest americans making more than a quarter million dollars a year. >> we've tried it their way. it didn't work. at the beginning of the last decade, congress passed trillions of dollars of tax cuts that benefitted the wealthiest americans more...

And what happened? the wealthy got wealthier, but most americans struggled. instead of creating more jobs, we had the slowest job growth in half a century. instead of widespread prosperity, the typical family saw its income fall and in just a few years, we went from record surpluses under bill clinton to record deficits that we are now still struggling to pay off today. so we don't need more top down economics. we've tried that theory. we've seen what happens. we can't afford to go back to it. we need policies that grow and strengthen the middle class, policies that help create jobs, that make...

wolf blitzer, let me start with you. this is something that a lot of critics have said is a subject changer because we had real bad jobs news on friday and that just -- it riveted people throughout the weekend. is this an effort to change the narrative? >> it may be, in part, because the white house clearly believes this is a winning political issue for the president. he is going to make the point that for 98% of the american people, there will be no increase in their taxes. individuals making $200,000 or less a year. families making $250,000 or less, they will see no increase whatso...

Growth. they did not. the wealthy got wealthier. we would expect that. but prosperity sure didn't trickle down. >> he was giving them ways of framing things, i think, even in their own coverage, karen. >> absolutely. whether it's trickle-down economics, you're on your own, to pick your favorite phrase, it was absolutely. for democrats one of the things i was happy to hear, he was essentially rejecting the reps' premise you screwed everything up. there's not this magical universe if we did their way, here's how much better it would be. here's what's happening. >> what do you make of him picking...

We were promised that these tax cuts would lead to faster job growth. they did not. the wealthy got wealthier. we would expect that. but prosperity sure didn't trickle down. >> he was giving them ways of framing things, i think, even in their own coverage, karen. >> absolutely. whether it's trickle-down economics, you're on your own, to pick your favorite phrase, it was absolutely -- for democrats one of the things i was happy to hear, he was essentially rejecting the republicans' premise that you've screwed everything up. there's not this magical universe if we did their way, here's how much ...