White House takes #My2K offline with Biden lunch

{mosads}According to a White House official, the vice president will eat with a group of middle-class taxpayers, one of whom responded to the #My2K campaign. The woman, who has not been identified, responded to the administration’s request for individuals to tell them what $2,200 means to them, the amount by which the White House estimates most middle-class families would see their taxes increase if the current tax rates expire.

The woman said: “I am a full-time worker and caregiver for three seniors. The expenses fall on my shoulders and my husband’s retirement. I can’t see how we can afford to pay more taxes.”   

The White House says that the social media campaign, designed to put pressure on Republicans in Congress to pass the extension of current middle-class tax rates before they expire at the end of the year, has resulted in 250,000 tweets using the hashtag #My2k and more than 100,000 stories shared through WhiteHouse.gov since it was launched at the end of November.

Although critics have also used the hashtag, appropriating the publicity in an attempt to redefine the counter-argument, the White House has put considerable resources behind the campaign, which included a Twitter townhall President Obama participated in earlier this week. The president has referred to the hashtag in speeches. 

This latest move to take the campaign offline is another signal that the administration likely had a long view on the strategy that went well beyond Twitter.

Obama also visited a middle-class family in Virginia on Thursday, standing in their kitchen while urging Congress to act before Christmas to preserve the tax cuts for 98 percent of Americans.

The current George W. Bush-era tax rates expire at the end of the year. Obama wants to extend the tax cuts for the middle class while allowing the rates for families making more than $250,000 annually to expire. Republicans want to extend tax rates across the board.