President Obama urged Democratic lawmakers Tuesday to get behind a controversial plan to extend the Bush tax cuts for all Americans, saying he understands their desire for a “fight” with Republicans but that he’s not willing to risk middle-class taxpayers being harmed in the process.

@funkmasterflex

The president, calling his 10th solo news conference to discuss his proposal, defended as a “good deal” the compromise he struck with Republican lawmakers. Directing his message largely toward the grumbling Democratic caucus, he likened their complaints to those expressed during the health care debate and scolded them for their stubbornness.

“This is the public-option debate all over again,” Obama said from the press briefing room. “So I pass a signature piece of legislation, where we finally get health care for all Americans, something that Democrats have been fighting for for a hundred years, but because there was a provision in there that they didn’t get … that somehow that was a sign of weakness and compromise.”

But trying to soothe his party is a little like a congressman walking into a rowdy town hall meeting with constituents. Nearly a year after the health care debates, lawmakers across Capitol Hill are once again blasting the president over a proposed compromise, this time to extend the Bush tax cuts for two years for all taxpayers — as well as extend long-term jobless benefits for one year.

Obama assured Democrats Tuesday that he remains opposed to extending tax cuts for the wealthy but said he had to accept a temporary extension because Republicans were “unwilling to budge” on it. He said he would push to end those cuts two years from now, but urged Congress to support the plan to avoid a crushing tax increase at the beginning of next year. Continue reading…