President Barack Obama is going to deliver a major speech on debt. Expected: he’ll call on tax increases coupled with budget cuts. The GOP will resist tax increases which will set the narrative for the rest of his term and Obama versus the GOP which clearly the White House hopes will pick up independent support. Obama’s problem: his liberal base doesn’t want the cuts that took place, let alone any more cuts.

President Barack Obama enters politically tricky territory Wednesday when he outlines his plan for reducing long-term deficits and the national debt amid a climate of tense budget negotiations.

A senior administration official confirmed that the president will renew his call to end the Bush-era tax cuts for families making more than $250,000 annually — a move fiercely opposed by Republicans opposed to any tax increase.

Obama’s speech at George Washington University will follow White House talks in the morning with congressional leaders who are staking out positions on upcoming issues including approval of last week’s budget deal for the rest of the current fiscal year, increasing the federal debt ceiling and crafting a budget for fiscal year 2012.

For Obama, the speech is a response to a Republican budget plan for next fiscal year released last week by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, that would overhaul the Medicare and Medicaid government health care programs while reforming the tax code to lower rates and eliminate loopholes.

The Ryan plan is strongly opposed by the White House and congressional Democrats, who say it protects the wealthy while putting the burden of spending cuts and other reforms on the middle class and the poor.

Here’s Morning Joe’s report on it:

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CNN’s report complete with D and R talking heads including my favorite, the ever-thoughtful David Gergen. Gergen notes that advance indications are that Obama will be “anything but bold and concrete which is what I think is needed now.”