White House signals continued tax cuts for all | Threatens veto on heatlh care

In a recent interview with Huffington Post, David Axelrod, Barack Obama's senior advisor, states that in the lame duck session of Congress it seems more likely the votes would exist to
extend the Bush-era tax cuts to all Americans - regardless of income.
Axelrod told HuffPo that 'we must deal with the world as we find it' and
that President Barack Obama would not risk sacrificing tax cuts for
middle class families over a political fight whether or not to give them
to those earning over $250k or more a year. Despite recent warnings
from Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner, citing that doing this would
be a '$700 billion mistake', the Obama Administration is willing to take this step to ensure that
the tax cuts are continued for the middle class; however, the Bush tax
cuts are most likely to be extended over a one-two year duration rather
than a permanent fixture.

Additionally, Axelrod reiterated the White House position on the recent talks from republicans wanting to repeal the new health care reform law. He stated that the president would veto any attempt of
repealing the law, though he would "work with people" who "have
constructive ideas about how to strengthen" it. The veto threat was not
unexpected, but it was the first time that a top administration figure
had issued such a threat on the record. And in doing so, Axelrod
predicted that Republicans would be making a major misstep by
challenging the White House's commitment on this front.

"I'm not going to prejudge what they are going to do," Axelrod said of Republican opposition to the legislation. "But I will tell you this -- we are firm in our commitment, we are willing to work with people to
improve this plan we are not going to stand for those who want to
undermine it and destroy it."

"The notion of spending the next two years fighting over this, I think, is a complete misreading of what the American people want," he added. "They want us to focus on the economy.

The rest of this article is at:
http://www.examiner.com/dnc-in-nashville/white-house-signals-contin...

Tags: Axelrod, Barack, Care, Class, Cuts, David, Health, Middle, Obama, Reform, More…Tax