President Obama, amid charges of waging class warfare, is expected to push Monday for a tax hike on families earning more than $ 250,000 -- and an extension of the Bush-era tax rates for families making less than that. 

The proposal comes just days after Obama courted the blue-collar vote in the battleground states of Ohio and Pennsylvania, where he talked frequently about middle-class values. 

The pitch is the latest proposal from a White House that has had a complicated relationship with the Bush-era tax rates, which have been in effect for nearly a decade. Obama at first held back on letting any of those rates expire during the height of the recession, saying in 2009 that would be "the last thing you want to do" because it would "take more demand out of the economy." 

He then negotiated with Republicans in 2010 to extend the rates for another two years. 

But campaign adviser Robert Gibbs said over the weekend that Obama is now "100 percent committed" to ending the rates for those making over $ 250,000. 

The announcement, expected shortly before noon on Monday, would let the rates expire only for those making over $ 250,000. It preempts a more sweeping proposal from congressional Republicans -- who will be negotiating for an extension of the Bush tax rates for everyone. Those rates expire at the end of the year. 

Obama's re-election campaign also plans to use Washington's tax debate to ramp up its criticism of Mitt Romney. The campaign and its Democratic allies have slammed the presumptive GOP nominee for not releasing several years of tax returns and for having some of his money in offshore bank accounts. 

The strategy is aimed at portraying Romney, whose personal wealth could exceed $ 250 million, as disconnected from middle-class voters. 

"We have to continue to grow our economy. We have to grow it from the middle class out," Gibbs said Monday in an interview on NBC's "Today" show. "But for millionaires and billionaires, they don't need a tax cut," he added. 

Obama is expected to promote his tax policy at a series of events this week in battleground states, including New Hampshire, Colorado and Nevada. 

The president's shift to the tax debate follows Friday's lackluster jobs report showing the nation's unemployment rate stuck at 8.2 percent. 

The Bush-era tax cuts are due to expire at the end of the year unless Congress votes to extend them. Economists worry that across-the-board tax increases, along with automatic spending cuts also scheduled to take hold at year's end, could be a blow to the shaky U.S. economy. 

Fox News' Ed Henry and The Associated Press contributed to this report