President Barack Obama has pushed his proposal to have the wealthy pay more in taxes, as a way to tame the federal deficit. Obama said this in his first press conference since winning re-election on November 6.
He said "the math tends not to work" in some proposals to raise taxes on the wealthy by just closing tax loopholes. Obama also said he was encouraged that some Republicans have agreed to raising new revenues. Obama heads into congressional talks this week on avoiding the "fiscal cliff" of 600 billion dollars in tax hikes and spending cuts looming at year’s end.
On the scandal that brought down General David Petraeus, he voiced confidence in the FBI’s ability to handle the investigation. And at the top of his foreign diplomacy plan, the president vowed to push for a diplomatic resolution to Iran’s suspected attempt to build a nuclear weapon, while restating his insistence that Tehran will never be allowed to acquire a nuclear bomb.