(CNN) – One day after Mitt Romney took heat for a comment he made about the poor, the Republican presidential candidate characterized his remark as a “misstatement.”

“I misspoke,” Romney said Thursday in an interview aired on KSNV, a CNN affiliate in Las Vegas. “When you do I don’t know how many thousands of interviews, now and then you may get it wrong, and I misspoke.”

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Romney made the original comment in an interview with CNN on Wednesday morning, in which he said he was not “concerned about the very poor” because there is a safety net in place for them—but added, “if there are holes in it, I will work to repair that.”

The signs look hopeful for a short-term accord in Congress on extending the payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits.

But right after Election Day, a lame-duck Congress will face a horrific fiscal train wreck: sharp tax increases, combined with automatic spending cuts — and scanty reserves of political goodwill to help clinch a deal to avert that outcome.

A House-Senate conference committee met Thursday to try to push ahead with a full-year payroll tax cut. The committee will keep working next week as Congress heads to a Feb. 29 deadline.

Also as part of that deal, there’s bipartisan accord on the committee to not allow Medicare spending cuts enacted in 1997 to take effect. The payroll tax cut package will include another in a long series of postponements of the cut in Medicare payments to doctors.

President Barack Obama on Wednesday called on Congress to approve a $5 billion to $10 billion effort to help U.S. homeowners refinance as part of a wider package of proposals to shore up the depressed housing market.

Obama had sketched out the proposals in his State of the Union address last week, including a tax on banks to pay for the plan that Republicans quickly rejected.

The White House offered more details on Wednesday ahead of a speech by Obama to expand on his initiative, which some Republicans have derided as an election-year ploy.

Washington (CNN) — While reaching out to supporters through one of the latest high-tech means, President Obama expanded his social media experience by holding a Google+ video chat room interview Monday afternoon.

In an election year, it’s probably not good politics to talk about what you look forward to doing after your time in the White House, but that’s exactly what President Obama did when asked about the frustrations of living in the security bubble.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Republicans portray President Obama as the tax-hiker-in-chief.

Obama portrays himself as a tax cutter for the masses but not the rich.

The truth isn’t so cut and dry.

The fact is, the president’s record on taxes is a mixed bag. In three-plus years in office, Obama has raised some taxes even as he has cut others.

The end result: Both sides get their election-year talking points, and families and businesses get a maze of temporary or soon-to-expire tax laws mixed in with some new ones on tap.

Low- and middle-income households: The president wants to make the Bush tax cuts permanent for anyone making less than $200,000 ($250,000 for couples). In the meantime, as part of a deal with Congress in December 2010, he supported a two-year extension of them through the end of this year.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — The Democratic-controlled U.S. Senate on Thursday rejected a measure that would have prevented a $1.2 trillion increase in the debt ceiling, putting an end to legislative debate on the politically contentious issue until after the November presidential election.

A procedural motion to move forward with the bill was rejected in a largely party-line 44-52 vote. The measure, approved by the GOP-controlled House of Representatives last week, had little chance of either passing Congress or surviving a certain presidential veto. It was considered a largely symbolic gesture on the part of Republicans.

Updated at 1 a.m. ET: WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum canceled his Sunday morning campaign events and planned to spend time with his hospitalized daughter.

“Rick and his wife Karen are admitting their daughter Bella to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia this evening,” spokesman Hogan Gidley said in a statement Saturday night, adding “Rick intends to return to Florida and resume the campaign schedule as soon as is possible.”

Santorum had been scheduled to appear on NBC’s “Meet the Press” and attend church in Miami. Officials did not cancel Sunday’s afternoon events in Sarasota and Punta Gorda.

(CNN) — President Barack Obama unveiled a new college affordability plan Friday, proposing to further expand student financial aid while providing more assistance to schools that hold tuition down and cutting aid to those that do not.

The plan is part of a populist White House pitch to middle class families that promises to play an integral role in the Democrats’ 2012 campaign.

Appearing before a raucous student crowd in Michigan — a potentially critical swing state this year — Obama outlined plans to boost total federal spending on Perkins loans from $1 billion to $8 billion. He also announced plans to push for the creation of a $1 billion competition encouraging states to contain public tuition rates, among other things.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — President Obama this week defined what he believes should be the minimum “fair share” for millionaires and billionaires to pay in taxes. His answer: At least 30% of their income.

“If you make more than $1 million a year, you should not pay less than 30% in taxes,” Obama said during his State of the Union address.

The 30% marker is the first real detail Obama has offered since proposing the so-called Buffett Rule last September. That rule is a guideline intended to ensure that the very wealthy don’t pay a lower percentage of their income in taxes than anyone in the middle class.

It’s named, of course, after billionaire investor Warren Buffett, who has repeatedly asserted that he pays a lower percentage of his income to the IRS than his secretary.

(CNN) — President Barack Obama on Wednesday launched a three-day visit to five battleground states in the November election by pressing State of the Union themes of core American values and having the wealthy pay more taxes.

At an Iowa manufacturing plant that he said represented the kind of job creation needed for the economy, Obama repeatedly drew applause for the apparent central message of his re-election bid — that the country needs to keep alive equal opportunity for all.

Americans aren’t looking for a handout, the president said, but want the security of knowing they can provide for their families, send their kids to college and save for retirement.