Today on NBC's Meet the Press, White House senior adviser David Plouffe said that President Obama "believes taxes on the higher income--people over $250,000--should eventually go up," adding: "I think the president’s goal--and he's been clear about this--is to protect the middle class as we move forward here." The talk about taxes arose from conversation about Obama's plan to reduce longterm debt, which Plouffe says will be announced later this week. A White House official later confirmed that the plan will be announced in a speech on Wednesday, Reuters reports. Plouffe also said that regardless of the expected difficulty over raising the debt ceiling, it has to be raised. A failure to do so would be catastrophic, and he says that leaders in both parties, including Speaker John Boehner and Mitch McConnell realize this. "It's something the Speaker of the House, John Boehner, has said, if we didn't raise it would bring a financial disaster both in this country and around the world," he said.

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