Obama proposes tax-cut extension for middle-class households And Obama also aims to sharpen the distinction with likely Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, who backs extending the tax cuts for all income levels. "Most people agree we should not raise taxes on middle-class families or small businesses," Obama said, appearing in the East Room with families and workers who would benefit from the initiative."Not when so many people are trying to get by." Obama said that Republicans believe that the best way to build the economy is to give tax breaks to the wealthy, and he charged that "top-down economics" during the Bush era helped lead to the economic recession. I disagree. I think they're wrong," Obama said. I think our prosperity comes from an economy built on a strong and growing middle class. . . . It's time to let the tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, folks like myself, expire. The tax cuts dating to the Bush administration are set to expire for all income levels at the end of this year. House Republicans argued that the president's approach would harm small-business owners by raising taxes on them. GOP lawmakers pledged to produce their own plan to overhaul the nation's tax code, and they have scheduled a House vote July 23 on a Republican proposal to extend the tax cuts for all income earners. "President Obama is still asleep at the switch when it comes to our economy and jobs," House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) said Monday. In the wake of another weak jobs report, the president is doubling down on his quixotic call for the same small-business tax hikes that have been routinely rejected by the House and Senate. Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul called the president's proposal "a massive tax increase. It just proves again that the president doesn't have a clue how to get America working again. But Obama said 98 percent of the public, as well as 97 percent of small-business owners, would fall under the $250,000-per-year threshold. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said at his daily briefing that Obama would veto any bill that extends the tax cuts for all income levels, arguing that eliminating the tax breaks for wealthier Americans, who don't need the money, would help pay down the deficit.