Washington, Dec. 4 (ANI): US President Barack Obama took to social networking site Twitter to address issues pertaining to 'fiscal cliff'.
"hey guys - this is barack," the President wrote on the social networking site.
With that casual greeting, Obama took to Twitter on Monday as part of a stepped-up push to avoid the fiscal cliff with a budget plan that would include some tax increases along with spending cuts, the New York Daily News reports.
For roughly 45 minutes, and in 140 characters or less, Obama responded to questions about his tax plan.
He argued for extending tax breaks for middle-class Americans, while increasing taxes on the wealthy, the report said.
But Obama's public relations effort was met almost immediately with a House Republican counterproposal that called for raising revenue through tax reform and spending cuts, rather than rate increases, the report added.
According to the report, House Speaker John Boehner had dismissed Obama's plan for 1.6 trillion dollars in increased revenue during a round of interviews on Sunday, saying he was "flabbergasted" by the administration's "non-serious" proposal.
If Congress fails to reach a deal with the White House by year-end, a crippling series of tax hikes and spending cuts, known as the "fiscal cliff", are set to take effect, the report said.
The Twitter chat followed the release of a campaign-style video arguing that Americans cast their ballots for Obama's tax plan when they re-elected him last month.
According to the report, some of the Twitter questions fielded by Obama on Monday were supportive, while others were more skeptical.
"Mr. President, why won't keeping tax rates low across the board encourage more hires and therefore more tax revenue?" Mike Vanderwyst of Los Angeles asked.
Obama replied that "high end tax cuts do least for economic growth" while costing nearly 1 trillion dollars.
"Why not place more emphasis on reducing government spending, than on raising revenues?" was another query from former soldier David Osteen.
Obama said he is "open to more smart cuts," as long as they don't inhibit job growth or hurt vulnerable Americans, the report added. (ANI)