governor paul la page. and records smashed from the midwest to the east coast. and now a new record. this past year has been the warmest ever for america. so turn up the ac, grab a cold drunk. cnn newsroom begins right now. good morning to you. thank you so much for joining us. i m carol costello. right now, president obama is just about to head to the heartland. he is visiting the battle ground state of iowa and reaching out to middle class voters. that s who would most benefit from his plan to extend the bush era tax cuts. here s what s going to change. basically if we don t do anything, everybody s taxes go up at the end of this year. now, understand what i m proposing is 98% of america, 98% of american families, won t see their taxes go up according to my plaque. plan. the only folks who would see their taxes go up would be the top 2%, folks like me who don t need those tax breaks, are doing just fine without them. republicans will seize the spotlight first in
they bear the name of his predecessor. president obama is seizing the bush tax cutted and calling for them to be extend, but not for everyone. the president wants to let them expire for the wealthiest americans. that puts him at odds with congressional republicans, as well as his rival mitt romney and sets the stage for a very heated battle with less than four months to go before the election. our white house correspondent brianna keilar is covering this for us. first of all, why is the president doing this today? reporter: well, wolf, this is certainly part of his narrative that he s trying to put out there as he runs for re-election. this is very much happening through that political prism. he tried to portray himself as really the one fighting for the middle class. now he s trying to portray his opponent mitt romney and congressional republicans as being defenders of the wealthy. so what he s calling for is for an extension of the bush-era tax cuts only for american fami