Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to President Barack Obama, pressed the case to leading manufacturing executives for a budget deal including increases on tax rates paid by high earners.
Jarrett met today in Washington with the executive committee of the National Association of Manufacturers as part of a White House effort to seek support from business leaders in talks with Republican congressional leaders to avert automatic cuts in government spending and tax increases for the middle class that are scheduled to begin in January.
Jarrett said it was “a great opportunity for me to speak directly to an important segment of our economy” and “answer their specific questions on the fiscal cliff.”
Mary Andringa, president and chief executive officer of Vermeer Corp., the association’s chairwoman, and Doug Oberhelman, chairman and CEO of Caterpillar Inc. and the association’s vice chairman, were among the executives at the meeting at the group’s office.
Obama and his senior advisers have had a series of meetings with major corporate CEOS and other business leaders as they call for allowing tax cuts for top earners to expire at the end of the year. Republicans want to continue the lower tax rates for couples with more than $250,000 in annual income.
Obama and House Speaker John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, met for 50 minutes today at the White House as negotiations continued on the budget stalemate.
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