Obama proposes cut in corporate income tax

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.

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.