In a sober nine-minute address to the nation, Obama announced that tax cuts for all Americans, including the very wealthiest, will be extended for an additional two years. In exchange, unemployment insurance, which was set to expire, will be extended for 13 months. "I have no doubt that everyone will find something in this compromise that they don’t like,” he said. But the president asked that partisan differences be put aside for the good of the country. “I’m not willing to let working families across this country become collateral damage for political warfare here in Washington,” he said, adding that allowing taxes to go up on everyone could cost the country well over a million jobs. Still, Obama was clear in his opposition to Republican proposals, saying he was unwilling to allow a permanent extension of Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, which, he said, would cost more than $700 billion.
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