United Liberty

According to reports, President Barack  Obama is showing a renewed interesting in extending all of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts in exchange for extension of unemployment benefits and extending the Making Work Pay tax program, which was part of last year’s  failed stimulus bill:

In saying he would be open to a temporary extension of the Bush-era tax cuts for the affluent, President Obama told Congressional leaders he would seek GOP concessions: a year-long extension of unemployment insurance and tax cuts for middle-income and working poor Americans that were in the stimulus law but also expire at the end of this year. Those include the Making Work Pay tax cut of $400 for middle-income individuals and $800 for couples, a tuition tax credit, an expanded earned income and child credit for the working poor, and a payroll tax credit for new hires.

That package would cost the Treasury around $150 billion a year. But without it, taxes would still rise for 95 percent of Americans, a White House official said.

House lawmakers approved legislation permanently extending the lower tax cuts for middle class Americans on Thursday.

The tax cuts implemented in 2001 and 2003 by the Bush administration are set to expire at the end of the year unless they are renewed by Congress.

CBS News correspondent Mark Knoller tweets that President Obama will signal support in a speech today.Obama no doubt realizes that the has very little leverage over Republicans, and all he do can is work out a compromise; one that will do much to anger his base.