Update (12:22 p.m. EDT): The brief address is over without a question-and-answer period. Obama ended by calling on Congress: "Pass a bill extending the tax cuts to the middle class. I will sign it tomorrow. Pass it next week I’ll sign it next week. You get the idea. As soon as that’s done we can have the debate about also extending the cuts to the wealthiest Americans."

Update (12:21 p.m. EDT): Obama predicted that opponents of the his proposal would accuse him of taxing job-creating small business owners. "The proposal I make today would extend these tax cuts for 97 percent of small business owners. In other words, 97 percent of small business owners fall under the $250,000 threshold." 

Update (12:14 p.m. EDT): Obama repeated twice the assertion that "since I've been in office, we've cut taxes for the average middle class family by $3600." Later, he said, "these tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans are also the least likely to promote growth."

Original: We haven't had a good dust-up over federal tax policy in weeks, so on Monday President Barack Obama plans to start one by announcing he'll seek an extension of the Bush-era tax cuts for those earning less than $250,000 a year. The proposal sets up a conflict with Republicans, who want an extension of all the cuts, set to lapse on Jan. 1. The Atlantic Wire's Dashiell Bennet pulled together the latest reporting on the issue earlier Monday, and The New York Times' Jennifer Steinhauer has a good curtain-raiser on the issue from May.

Give those a browse as you listen to the president's proposal, set to start at 11:50 a.m.

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Adam Martin