(AP) Obama's trillion-dollar tax hike would hit low- and middle-income families

◼ SPIN METER: Obama, Dems skirt issue on tax hikes... Call it eliminating an unfair break, or removing an unjust loophole, or even "taking a balanced approach." Just don't call it raising taxes. - Erica Werner/AP Boston.com via Drudge

As they work toward a must-do deal with Republicans on paring trillions from the deficit in order to raise the nation's debt limit, President Barack Obama and Democrats are saying almost anything to avoid the politically toxic pronouncement that they want to increase taxes.

Republicans, for their part, are just as quick to declare elimination of the most rarefied corporate benefit a job-killing tax hike on the American people....

Proposals under consideration include raising taxes on small business owners and potentially low- and middle-income families. You won't hear about that from Obama. Instead the president focuses on the very rich, and speaks euphemistically. Here are a few of the phrases the president has used of late to talk about what amounts to raising taxes for some:

-- "What we need to do is to have a balanced approach where everything is on the table."

--"We need to take on spending in the tax code."

--"The tax cuts I'm proposing we get rid of are tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires; tax breaks for oil companies and hedge fund managers and corporate jet owners."

--"You can't reduce the deficit to the levels that it needs to be reduced without having some revenue in the mix."

And here's how Republicans respond:

--"Tax hikes on families and job creators would only make things worse." -- House Speaker John Boehner.

--"The focus for us is to make sure that we are not increasing taxes on individuals who are the job creators, and like it or not, the job creators are those who can be successful in a small business context." -- House Majority Leader Eric Cantor.

--"Democrats seem to think the solution to our debt crisis is to ask taxpayers and struggling businesses to reward their economic stewardship with even more money to spend as they please." -- Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.