BAM TARGETS RICH

PRESIDENT OBAMA urged Congress to end tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans — setting up a political showdown over the so-called “Buffett Rule.”

The plan, named after billionaire Warren Buffett, would increase taxes on millionaires and billionaires — a plan that Democrats largely support, and Republicans vehemently oppose.

“Should we ask middle-class Americans to pay even more at a time when their bud- gets are already stretched to the breaking point?” Obama asked Saturday in his weekly address. “Or should we ask some of the wealthiest Americans to pay their fair share?”

Obama’s proposal, which will be voted upon this spring, would require those earning more than $1 million annually to pay at least the same tax rate as middle-class families. “I think asking a billionaire to pay at least the same tax rate as his secretary is just common sense,” said Obama, echoing Buffet’s public complaint that led to the name of the plan.

Obama denied that the proposal was “class warfare” — a charge that Republican leaders have used to incite opposition to the plan.

The President has set up his reelection bid in part as a race against a “do-nothing” Gop-controlled Congress that, he claimed, would have to explain votes to protect the wealthy at the expense of the middle class.

Republicans on Capitol Hill oppose the plan and instead pointed fingers at Obama for playing politics with the nation’s struggling economy.

House Speaker John Boehner touted the budget plan his chamber passed last week and accused the Democrat-controlled Senate of delaying a series of energy bills that he believes could have controlled gas prices.

“The budget, I’m sorry to say, is just the tip of the iceberg,” he said in the GOP response. “The Senate has stalled dozens of House-passed bills, several of which would implement the Republicans’ ‘all-of-the-above’ energy strategy to address rising gas prices and help create jobs.”