Obama: Extend tax credits to businesses

September 6, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Chicago Tribune

WASHINGTON

President Barack Obama will ask Congress to pass a $100 billion plan to expand and permanently extend the tax credits for businesses that invest in research and development, part of a larger plan for spurring the economy that he is to unveil in greater detail Wednesday.

In an address at a Cleveland-area community college, Obama will call for an increase from 14 percent to 17 percent in one of the credit options available to businesses, an administration official said Sunday.

Obama will propose paying for the plan in part by closing corporate tax breaks for multinational corporations and some energy companies.

The president will announce his plan to extend the tax credits along with proposals to increase spending on highways and other infrastructure projects and to continue the middle-class portion of the Bush administration tax cuts. Those tax cuts are scheduled to expire in four months.

The president’s proposals are likely to have only a modest effect on the economy in the short term. Republicans oppose Obama’s economic policy, making more sweeping proposals politically untenable for the Democratic president.

Obama chose Cuyahoga Community College as the site of his announcement partly to contrast his own plans with those of Ohio’s John Boehner, the House Republican leader, who offered his own thoughts on the economy during a recent address nearby. Boehner stands to become speaker of the house if Democrats lose control of the chamber in November’s congressional election.