President Obama calls on Congress to quickly pass a one-year extension of the 2001 and 2003 Bush-era income tax rates—but only for the middle class, which he defined as families earning $250,000 a year or less. “Let's not hold the vast majority of Americans and our entire economy hostage while we debate the merits of another tax cut for the wealthy,” the president says. Although Obama still supports a permanent extension of tax rates for the middle class, a one-year extension provides certainty for a year, says White House Press Secretary Jay Carney.