President Obama, this morning:
"My number-one priority is making sure that we make the middle-class tax cuts permanent, that we give certainty to the 98 percent of Americans who are affected by those tax breaks," Obama said.
Obama also said he remains opposed to a permanent extension of upper-income tax cuts:
"I continue to believe that extending permanently the upper-income tax cuts would be a mistake and that we can't afford it," Obama said at a news conference at the end of the G20 summit in South Korea.
Yesterday, as you'll recall, the administration opened the door to a temporary extension of both middle-income and upper-income tax cuts. That was alarming because a temporary extension of both tax cuts would keep them linked, giving the GOP the leverage they need to extend upper-income tax cuts when they expire.
The compromise position that President Obama had previously articulated would involve a permanent extension of the middle-class tax cuts and a temporary extension of the upper-income tax cuts. Under this plan, Republicans would get their cherished upper-income tax cuts, and progressives would finally decouple the upper-income and middle-income tax cuts, forcing the GOP to defend the upper-income tax cuts on their own terms when they expire.
By once again stating that his top priority was a permanent extension of middle-income tax cuts and that he opposes a permanent extension of upper-income tax cuts, Obama seems to be returning the administration to his previously articulated position. That's definitely a piece of welcome news. Now what we need is a sustained communications offensive to pound this message home, coupled with the backbone and resolve to win this fight and at the very least decouple the middle-income and upper-income tax cuts.