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 Looking to burnish his legacy with two years left in office, Obama
will appear before a joint session of Congress in the well of the
House of Representatives at 9 p.m. The speech will be his best
opportunity of the year to command the attention of millions of
Americans watching on television.
Obama will push a plan to increase taxes by $320 billion over 10
years on the wealthy by closing tax loopholes and imposing a fee on
big financial firms. The money would be used to pay for an increase
in benefits for the middle class.
Obama's aim is to help those left behind by an economic revival
taking hold six years into his tenure, which began with the Democrat
facing a crippling financial crisis.
"Now that we have fought our way through the crisis, how do we make
sure that everybody in this country, how do we make sure that they
are sharing in this growing economy?" Obama said in a White
House-produced YouTube video preview of his speech.
 Obama's proposals are already being viewed skeptically by
Republicans who control both houses of Congress and who are in no
mood to raise taxes on anyone.
"More Washington tax hikes and spending is the same, old top-down
approach we’ve come to expect from President Obama that hasn’t
worked," said Michael Steel, spokesman for House Speaker John
Boehner, the top U.S. Republican.
But White House officials are betting that Republicans, also under
pressure to help the middle class and needing to prove they can
govern, will be willing to compromise on some aspects of the plan.
"So are they going to agree on everything? Absolutely not," senior
White House adviser Dan Pfeiffer told CBS' "Face the Nation" on
Sunday. "I think we should have a debate in this country between
middle class economics and trickledown economics and see if we can
come to an agreement on the things we do agree on."
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The proposals are also likely to be the subject of a debate among
potential candidates to replace him in 2016, a campaign that is just
now getting started.
Obama will take his proposals on the road the next day, traveling to
Idaho and Kansas to promote them. And he will be interviewed by
three YouTube bloggers.
The speech will also allow Obama to update Americans on the struggle
against Islamic extremists, two weeks after 17 people were killed in
Paris attacks.
He will defend his decision to seek to normalize diplomatic
relations with Cuba. Alan Gross, the U.S. aid worker whose release
from a Cuban prison helped pave the way toward restoring diplomatic
ties with Cuba, will be among first lady Michelle Obama's guests for
the speech.
(Reporting by Steve Holland; Editing by Nick Zieminski)
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