Robert Reich: Obama finally calling out GOP’s hypocrisy on tax cuts

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Former U.S. labor secretary and University of California professor Robert Reich on Monday said President Barack Obama was “finally stepping up to the plate” and boldly calling out Republican’s hypocrisy regarding tax cuts.

Republicans this year fought to extend the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, but have opposed extending the payroll tax cut. Obama said the payroll tax cut represents around $1,000 a year for the average middle class family.

Reich told Countdown host Keith Olbermann that Republicans didn’t want to raise taxes on the rich, even though it may require raising taxes on everybody else.

Additionally, Republicans have acknowledged that tax cuts need to be paid for, “when for years they’ve been saying just the reverse, that tax cuts will pay for themselves.”

Grover Norquist’s anti-tax pledge, which nearly every Republican in Congress has signed, is becoming increasingly problematic for the GOP, according to Reich.

“Americans don’t want to vote for [anyone] who is pledged to someone else. Americans want people who are pledged to them, as Americans.”

Watch video, courtesy of Current TV, below: