White House predicts tax cut win

WASHINGTON – The White House on Sunday expressed confidence that Congress will pass the tax-cut compromise negotiated by President Barack Obama and Republican leaders, even as Democratic lawmakers continued to say the president gave in too easily.

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., said he wished the president would play hardball with Republicans right up to News Year’s Eve, the day the Bush-era tax cuts expire. But he didn’t expect that to happen.

“I don’t see that kind of a willingness to fight that hard, where he will take that kind of a position, and that’s what’s necessary,” Levin said of Obama on C-SPAN’s “Newsmakers.”

Still, there was a growing feeling that the compromise would pass, extending tax cuts for the wealthy as well as the middle class for two years in exchange for a 13-month extension of unemployment benefits and a cut in Social Security taxes.

The Senate is scheduled to vote at 3 p.m. today to cut off debate, an effort that needs the support of 60 of the 100 senators. The cutoff is expected to pass, setting up a final vote probably no later than Wednesday. If the bill passes, it heads to the House.

Asked about the bill’s prospects in the House, where Democrats last week agreed that the bill should not come to the floor in its current form, White House senior adviser David Axelrod said on CNN’s “State of the Union,” “We’ll prevail there because at the end of the day, no one wants to see taxes go up on 150 million Americans on Jan. 1.”

McClatchy