More Democrats seek tax cuts for all

WASHINGTON (AP) - More Democrats joined Republicans on Wednesday in calling for the preservation of tax breaks for Americans of every income level, bolting this election season from President Barack Obama's plan to preserve cuts for families who earn less than $250,000 and let taxes rise for the wealthiest Americans.

But Obama placed the blame for the stalled proposal squarely on Republicans.

"They want to hold these middle class tax cuts hostage until they get an additional tax cut for the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans," the president said in afternoon remarks.

"Doesn't it make sense for us to move forward with the tax cuts that we all agree on?" Obama added. "We should be able to extend, right now, middle-class tax relief on the first $250,000 of income."

Nervous Democrats are among those with concerns about the president's plan.

"We should not be raising taxes in the middle of a recession," Rep. Jim Marshall, D-Ga., who's facing tough odds in his bid for a fourth term, wrote in a terse letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

"It is essential that we keep things as they are in the short term," said Rep. Travis W. Childers, D-Miss., another conservative incumbent in a tight race, whose district, like Marshall's, voted for Republican John McCain in the 2008 presidential race.

For this pair, one press release announcing their opposition to Obama's plan was not enough. They were two of 31 jittery Democrats who signed a letter urging Pelosi, D-Calif., and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., to abandon the Obama plan and extend to everyone the Bush-era tax cuts due to expire at the end of the year, according to one of its authors, Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah.

House and Senate leaders aren't saying which plan they will propose, or if they will bother with the debate in the charged political atmosphere leading to the Nov. 2 midterm election. All 435 House seats, 37 in the Senate and the Democratic majorities in both houses are on the line.