they say so far, the president has failed on the economy. unfortunately, 9 president s policies the president s policies have made it worse. they ve thrown a wet blanket over the economy. we hope his proposals tonight will show how we can make it better. trace: several republicans said they didn t plan to attend tonight s address. including louisiana senator vitter who said he will be hosting a new orleans saints party with family and friends. today he said he will stay in washington, because senate majority leader harry reid scheduled a vote after the speech. mike emanuel with the news live on capitol hill. what kind of ideas do republicans have job creation? reporter: we ve heard some of the traditional republican arguments for job creation. essentially stop the onslaught of regulations on america s job creators. reform the tax coat. mr. president the three pending free trade deals to congress to ratify.
do this. right. ultimately when you ask them this question about tax policy, for a lot of people they don t think that economic recovery hinges on tax policy. why did you choose this particular question? why is it an important question? this is was a long-term question. so beyond economic recovery. this same group of economists also had said in earlier survey they didn t think we should raise taxes at all. so they were not in favor of letting any of the bush tax cuts expire in the near term. this was a long-term question. because what tax experts and budget experts say once the economy recovers we really do have to think in broader terms both to reduce the deficit and to basically everyone tahate the tax coat. it you re going to get bipartisan support for changeding the tax code. you re not going to get bipartisan agreement on just lou to do it. the issue here is the government needs to try and raise more money over time from people and businesses in order to pay the defici
is it the president? is it the leadership in congress? and i think they missed the moment. there is such a strong argument to be made, and you heard ben bernanke making part of it on 60 minutes saying our tax coat is out of whack. it s driving the growing gap between rich and poor. back in the 1950s when the top marginal tax rate was 90%, the gap between the top earners and the middle class was nothing like it is today. i m not arguing that we go back to a 90% top marginal rate. good. for those of you who make up there in the top rates, the economy was growing and people didn t expect to be billionaires. in the 90s we know bill clinton raised the top marginal rate to 39.6% and we created 22 million new jobs in the subsequent years. bush cut the tax rates for the richest people, very little job growth over the entirety of his term.
and high skilled jobs not in america but in countries like china, india. jobs and industry of the future are not just going to india and china, a tax coat says you should lower taxes if you create a job in indian rather than if you create one in buffalo, new york. neil: why the change of heart? well, it is a change. guest: he is waking up to the notion he needs the countries, like india and china, and he needs them to buy our debt so the last thing he should do is bash their business interests or bashing our business interests moving over there because he needs those countries to continue to finance our deficit which under his leadership, it is exploding. whether you like it or not.
corporate tax rates. what a great thing to stimulate the economy, get rid of the gamed that companies play to hide money to circumvent the tax coat dave, your argument, dave, is he doesn t do that. he plays fast and loose with some stuff. right. my argument is at its heart it s an extremely conventional republican taksim my fix indication plan. fine. then there s little buried nuggets like the repatriation tax, this weird 15% tax if you re an individual income earner instead of an employee, which would cause everybodied a goldman sachs to become an independent contractor. it s insanity. well, i ll put you down as a maybe on it, dave. larry, thank you. jeri, goes without saying. one being the know about donald trump not all business titans are big fans but not all are in that camp, including one carl icahn for whom the donald himself has high praise.