WASHINGTON — White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said this morning the Obama administration hopes the top House Republican was serious in expressing support for renewing tax cuts for the middle class.

Gibbs spoke as Congress was returning to the capital for a pre-election session likely to be dominated by a partisan battle extending Bush-era tax reductions for all wage earners, now scheduled to expire at year's end.

On Sunday, Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, said he would support renewing tax cuts for the middle class but not the wealthy if that was his only choice.

Democrats are worried November elections could hand the GOP control of the House and perhaps the Senate. The White House and its Democratic allies hope to use the tax-cut fight to cast themselves as defenders of the middle class and Republicans as a party eager to revive the days of the still unpopular former President George W. Bush.

Gibbs said the middle class should not be used as a political football by Republicans maneuvering to give the tax cuts to wealthy taxpayers, who he said don't need the reductions. Republicans say paring taxes for the wealthy would encourage them and the businesses they operate to create jobs.