Obama tries to quell Dems' anger over tax plan

AP
By CHARLES BABINGTON, Associated Press

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama scheduled a short-notice news conference Tuesday to sell a new tax cut compromise that makes big concessions to Republicans as the White House scurried to assuage angry Democrats.

Vice President Joe Biden traveled to the Capitol to lobby senators as liberal groups attacked the proposal that would extend Bush-era tax cuts for all Americans, including the richest, for two years. They argued that Obama had abandoned a long-held position in fashioning the compromise.

Obama promised in his 2008 campaign — and many times since — that these breaks would be continued only for the middle-class. But some in his own party and liberal groups attacked it, and even the Democratic leadership in Congress gave it a cool, noncommittal reception.

Obama's question-and-answer session was scheduled to take place before a closed House Democratic caucus, where liberal lawmakers were all but certain to lambaste it.

Besides holding current tax rates in place for all, the proposal would extend unemployment benefits and reduce payroll taxes for a year, which would help many lower-income Americans.

(More here.)

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