A day after announcing his tax cut deal with Senate Republicans, President Obama is holding a news conference at the White House to make the case for continuing Bush income and estate tax policy in exchange for an extension of unemployment benefits, a payroll tax holiday, and other tax cuts and incentives designed to promote growth.
Here's live video of the press conference (also on C-SPAN3:
We'll be following the press conference and posting live updates as it unfolds.
Update: In his opening remarks, President Obama calls the deal "a good deal" for Americans. He said he "understands the desire for a fight" over high end tax cuts, and pledged to fight the in two years from now, but for now he doesn't want to "play games" with the economy because his job is to "look out for middle-class families." A fight "might have been good politics" but it would have been the wrong thing to do, he says.
Update: First question is from AP and is about whether Obama's reversal on tax cuts means that people shouldn't trust that he will stick to his position in future fights. Obama says the problem is that "I have not been able to budge" Republicans on tax cuts, and that he's not willing to choose a "protracted political battle" over getting tax cuts done, even if it means accepting tax cuts for the wealthy, which he opposes.
Update: Follow up from AP is on whether the WH had failed over the past two years to set themselves up better to win this fight. Obama answers that tax cuts for wealthy is the holy grail of the GOP and that because he doesn't have 60 Democrats, the only way to extend middle-class tax cuts, in his view, was to give the GOP what they wanted, even though he, along with most Americans, disagrees with the GOP.
Update: Next question is about the state of the economy with respect to the deal. Obama says the deal will "help economic growth" which he said is the "main criteria" upon which his decision. Speaking directly to Democrats, he said economic growth needs to be the top priority, which he argues is the reason why he decided to support a deal with the GOP.