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CNN Wire Staff
President Barack Obama said Friday he's confident that Congress will pass a compromise tax package despite the objections of House Democrats.
"Nobody - Democrat or Republican - wants to see people's paychecks smaller on Jan. 1 because Congress didn't act," he said in an interview with National Public Radio.
"And I think that the framework that we've put forward, which says not only that people's taxes don't go up on Jan. 1, but also that we extend unemployment insurance for a year, that we make sure that key provisions like the college tax credit, the child tax credit, the earned-income tax credit are included - that that framework is going to serve as the basis for compromise."
House Democrats voted Thursday against considering the tax package that Obama negotiated with Republicans, raising questions over the president's influence in his own party.
Later, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, released the first version of legislation to implement the negotiated deal and said the Senate would vote Monday to open debate on it. The Senate version made public by Reid was largely the same as the deal announced by Obama, but it added extensions of some tax breaks intended to spur green energy investment, such as ethanol use.
Saying he believes there will be discussion between the House and the Senate, Obama believes there will probably be a Senate vote over the next several days.
"At the end of the day, people are going to conclude we don't want 2 million people suddenly without unemployment insurance and not able to pay their rent, not able to pay their mortgage, not able to pay their house note.
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Filed under: 360° Radar • President Barack Obama • Raw Politics |
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