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A top adviser to President Barack Obama said the White House objects to "permanent" tax cuts for the wealthy but is silent on the possibility of extending current tax rates for the short term.

Obama adviser David Axelrod said the president only wants to make permanent the tax cuts for the middle class that expire at the end of this year.

He urged Congress to resolve the tax-cut question during a lame-duck session of Congress.

Options facing Congress include extending middle-class tax cuts permanently while continuing tax cuts for the wealthy for only one or two years, or to adopt short-term extensions of all tax cuts.

Axelrod said he would leave negotiations to President Obama and lawmakers.

He appeared on "Fox News Sunday" and NBC's "Meet the Press."

Axelrod also said this morning that in the first half of next year he will leave the White House and return to Chicago - where he will begin the president's re-election campaign.

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