White House adviser David Axelrod said the administration expects House Democrats, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi, to back the compromise tax package negotiated by President Barack Obama and the Republicans.
“At the end of the day no one wants to see taxes go up for 150 million Americans on January 1st,” Axelrod said on CNN’s State of the Union programme. “This framework represents a compromise that both sides can accept and we can’t change it in major ways and expect that this thing is going to pass.”
The administration is in talks with House Democrats who have objected to keeping Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and to an estate-tax provision that would set the top rate at 35 per cent after a $5 million tax-free allowance per individual, Axelrod said.
The agreement Obama announced on December 6 would temporarily sustain the tax cuts for all income levels. The president said the compromise was needed to break a deadlock with congressional Republicans who vowed to block tax cuts for middle-income Americans if those for individuals earning more than $200,000 and couples earning more than $250,000 weren’t extended, too.