Obama Signs Tax Deal, Hails Bipartisan Effort to Grow Jobs

President Obama today signed into law an agreement to extend Bush-era tax cuts into 2011.

"By a wide bipartisan margin, both houses of Congress have now passed a package of tax relief that will protect the middle class, that will grow our economy, and will create jobs for the American people," the president said.

The tax cuts would have expired Jan.1, resulting in average Americans paying thousands of additional dollars in taxes next year. A key concession by the White House was letting the Bush tax cuts for the country's top earners be extended, although the president had previously denounced giving cuts to wealthy Americans.

House Democrats initially said the deal gave Republicans too many concessions and vowed to keep it from coming to a vote. Just before midnight Thursday, however, the House passed the $858 billion package with strong bipartisan support, 277 to 148.

"Candidly speaking, there are some elements of this legislation that I don't like. There are some elements that members of my party don't like. There are some elements that Republicans here today don't like. That's the nature of compromise, yielding on something each of us cares about to move forward on what all of us care about. "