President Obama used his State of the Union 2012 speech to portray himself as the champion of working class America and against the Republican tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. The central theme of his speech was the need to return to a society where every American has a chance to share in success, describing it as ‘the basic American promise that if you worked hard, you could do well enough to raise a family, own a home, send your kids to college, and put a little away for retirement’.

Obama defined this issue as a key issue for a fair society, arguing:

No challenge is more urgent. No debate is more important. We can either settle for a country where a shrinking number of people do really well, while a growing number of Americans barely get by, or we can restore an economy where everyone gets a fair shot, and everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same set of rules.

He went on to criticise Republican tax proposals, which would give nearly a $1 trillion in tax breaks to the wealthiest two per cent of Americans. President Obama said:

Right now, because of loopholes and shelters in the tax code, a quarter of all millionaires pay lower tax rates than millions of middle-class households.

Right now, Warren Buffett pays a lower tax rate than his secretary …

Tax reform should follow the Buffett rule: If you make more than a million dollars a year, you should not pay less than 30 percent in taxes …

Now, you can call this class warfare all you want. But asking a billionaire to pay at least as much as his secretary in taxes? Most Americans would call that common sense.

The full text of the speech is available on The Washington Post website.