Obama's back in the saddle on taxes for rich in weekly address

[A]s I said over and over again on the campaign trail, we can't just cut our way to prosperity. If we're serious about reducing the deficit, we have to combine spending cuts with revenue ' and that means asking the wealthiest Americans to pay a little more in taxes. That's how we did it when Bill Clinton was President.

Fresh off his election victory, President Obama dove into the heat of the so-called fiscal cliff crisis in his weekly address, promoting a jobs and growth program for the economy, pointing to the election as a validation of action over talk, and declaring that letting the tax cuts expire for the rich will be a sticking point for him in coming talks with Republicans.

As he did in his campaign, he insisted the tax question is an issue of fairness:

But I refuse to accept any approach that isn't balanced. I will not ask students or seniors or middle-class families to pay down the entire deficit while people making over $250,000 aren't asked to pay a dime more in taxes. This was a central question in the election. And on Tuesday, we found out that the majority of Americans agree with my approach ' that includes Democrats, Independents, and Republicans.

And yes, his insistence that his reelection validated his campaign pitch to have the rich pay more taxes is a welcome sign for progressives. Yet make no mistake, this is still Barack Obama'hopefully one with a few more true lines in the sand, but still a man who values cooperation, bipartisanship and compromise:

We know there will be differences and disagreements in the months to come. That's part of what makes our political system work. But on Tuesday, you said loud and clear that you won't tolerate dysfunction, or politicians who see compromise as a dirty word. Not when so many of your families are still struggling.

Instead, you want cooperation. You want action. That's what I plan to deliver in my second term, and I expect to find leaders from both parties willing to join me.

Sounds like the ball's in Speaker John Boehner's court now.

To read the transcript in full, check below the fold or visit the White House website.