Emanuel: Tax Cut Will Go Ahead

White House Chief of Staff-designate Rahm Emanuel told This Week that Barack Obama will move ahead with his plan to cut middle-class taxes despite rumors to the contrary, Politico reports. Other highlights from the Sunday talk shows:

• Emanuel also told This Week that Obama opposes tacking a Colombia free trade deal to a new economic stimulus package to secure the Bush administration’s approval, the Hill reports. To “have a strong recovery and a sustained recovery over a period of time means that the middle class must be the focus of the economic strategy,” he said.
• Likely incoming minority whip Rep. Eric Cantor told Fox News Sunday that “Republicans in Congress will stand ready to work with this new president” to address the country’s problems, the Hill reports.

• Transition team co-chair Valerie Jarrett told Meet the Press that "everything is a possibility right now” for Obama’s Cabinet, including keeping on some members of the Bush administration, CTV reports.
• Transition coordinator John Podesta told Fox News Sunday that Obama will choose his team with record-breaking speed, the Chicago Tribune reports. "Across the board... I think he intends to move very quickly,'' Podesta said. "He's beaten a lot of records during the course of the campaign.''
• House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn told Meet the Press that Obama “made it very clear during the campaign that he will govern from the center,” Politico reports. “It may, at times, be center right, sometimes center left, but always the center.”

(More Barack Obama stories.)