Transcript: Obama On Taxes, Economy And START

[Kindness of Blue]

PRESIDENT OBAMA: All right, fire away.

STEVE INSKEEP: OK, we'll jump right into it here. Mr. President, what do you intend to do about the House Democrats who have said that they are not going to bring your plan to a vote in its current form?

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, here's what I'm confident about: that nobody — Democrat or Republican — wants to see people's paychecks smaller on Jan. 1 because Congress didn't act.

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.

INSKEEP: But Democrats have said they're willing to let that go if they don't get some changes to this plan.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, what I suspect is that there're going to be some discussions both between the House and the Senate. My understanding is that the Senate's going to vote on the package over the next several days and that 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.

http://www.npr.org/2010/12/10/131949362/...tart?ps=rs