Republican Chairman Priebus: Claim That GOP Favors Rich Is 'Red Herring'

National Republican Chairman Reince Priebus says the notion that the GOP is the party of the rich is a "red herring" that is patently untrue.

"We’ve got to do a better job . . . of portraying the fact that, Number One, we want you to have a job, we want every American to be making more money, and we want to reduce taxes on every single American, no matter what income category you fit into," Priebus said today on CNN’s "State of the Union."

Reacting to a recent CBS News / New York Times poll showing that 69 percent of voters believe Republican policies favor the wealthy and 9 percent believe they favor the middle class, Priebus countered that more than 70 percent of Americans believe the country is on the wrong track.

Americans also don’t believe that President Barack Obama has fulfilled his campaign promises, Priebus said.

"I think that the president is doing a full-time job of trying to play a game of class warfare," Priebus said. The Republican party “doesn’t favor the rich."

The government is making promises it can’t keep, and the Republican Party is determined to defeat Obama in 2012, he said.

"I don’t know who is going to come out of this primary," he said. "Primaries are tough. After all of it is said in done . . . we are going to have a completely unified party because we know that this president is going to destroy this country economically if he gets re-elected."