Obama proposes cut in corporate income tax

photo President Barack Obama speaks about the economy July 24 at the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg, Mo. Obama's scheduled Tuesday visit to Chattanooga's Amazon fulfillment center has sparked plans for protests by conservative groups.

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Prepared transcript of President Obama's speech at Amazon in Chattanooga

Arkansas-Tennessee Live Blog

President Barack Obama, in a bid to break a stalemate with the Republican-controlled House, will announce today that he will agree to cut corporate tax rates in return for a commitment from Republicans to invest in middle-class jobs.

In a speech prepared for delivery at the Amazon distribution center in Chattanooga, Obama will offer to cut the current 35 percent corporate income tax down to a 28 percent rate. Obama aides call the speech a "grand bargain" to stimulate the economy and the first of several new proposals from the White House as budget negotiations with Congress continue for hte fiscal 2014 budget.

Obama is repeating a call he first made in his State of the Union to lower the corporate tax rate for manufacturers to no more than 25 percent.

The president has previously proposed to cut corporate tax rates but only in exchange for closing tax loopholes.

But Republicans were quick to dismiss the proposal, saying it was less a "bargain" than an effort to extract a major new fiscal stimulus program while offering a cut in corporate taxes that was designed to raise billions of dollars in additional revenue.

"It's the opposite of a concession," said Brendan Buck, a spokesman for House Speaker John A. Boehner.

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