President Obama defends tax deal #p2

from http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1210/46086.html

Under pressure from liberal critics to show more backbone, President Barack Obama came out swinging Tuesday — but at those same Democrats, who've spent the last 24 hours trashing his deal with the GOP extending tax cuts for the wealthy.

During a hastily-called White House press conference, Obama vowed he would continue to make the case that the tax cuts should only be extended to the middle class and insisted that the agreement he announced Monday does not represent a capitulation that will be followed by major concessions to Republicans on other issues.

But he grew most animated at the end of the half-hour session when he was asked about criticism from Democrats who wanted a bigger showdown with the GOP over the tax issue.

"You know, so this notion that somehow, you know, we are willing to compromise too much, reminds me of the debate that we had during health care. This is the public option debate all over again," Obama said, referring to the criticism he received from liberals who loudly criticized him during the health care debate for not pushing for a government-backed plan that would compete with private insurers.

"We finally get health care for all Americans, something that Democrats have been fighting for a hundred years, but because there was a provision in there that they didn't get, that would have affected maybe a couple of million people, even though we got health insurance for 30 million people…that somehow that was a sign of weakness and compromise," Obama said. "If that's the standard by which we are measuring success or core principles, then let's face it: We will never get anything done.

"People will have the satisfaction of having a purist position and no victories for the American people. And we will be able to feel good about ourselves and sanctimonious about how pure our intentions are and how tough we are, and in the meantime the American people are still seeing themselves not able to get health insurance because of preexisting condition, or not being able to pay their bills because their unemployment insurance ran out," the president declared. "That can't be the measure of — of how we think about our public service. That can't be the measure of what it means to be a Democrat."

rest at http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1210/46086.html