Obama may put Bush tax cuts on table

By Peter Wallsten
WashPost

Many Democrats and liberal activists are already expressing anger that President Obama has apparently agreed to a deal to raise the debt limit with no guarantee that taxes would be raised.

But a White House official points out that the president has not given up on a fight over tax revenues.

For starters, the official said, the Bush tax cuts, set to expire at the end of 2012, will serve as a sort of “trigger” to guarantee a major revenue increase. After all, even if Obama loses his 2012 reelection campaign, he would still be president until Jan. 20, 2013, and could veto any legislation seeking to extend those cuts.

At this time, it is not clear whether those promises from the White House will be enough to soothe feelings on the left – but the Bush tax cuts, and Obama’s willingness to extend them late last year, have been a major flashpoint for liberals. And the idea that Obama ultimately might not extend them would give the president a powerful line to fire up his depressed base.

(More here.)