With April 15 tea party protests breaking out across the country, President Obama on Wednesday sought to reassure Americans that he's working hard to make the tax code fairer and simpler.

Fairer by eliminating tax breaks for the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans. And simpler by directing his economic team to recommend ways to overhaul the tax code, close loopholes and recover hundreds of billions of dollars in uncollected revenues. A panel headed by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker is due to report back by December.

"We'll make it easier, quicker and less expensive for you to file a return, so that April 15 is not a date that is approached with dread every year," Obama declared during a White House meeting with working families.

But some experts believe it will be quite difficult for Obama to make good on his promises, let alone convince Americans to feel better about filing their returns.

It's hard to tell who's working harder at the Group of 20 summit in London: the spinners trying to tamp down expectations for a quick agreement on how to save the world economy, or the leaders trying to wallpaper over their disagreements about what to do next.

President Obama, representing the latter group, used a joint appearance with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Wednesday morning to chide the media for focusing on the potential for discord and described the "great symmetry" and "extraordinary convergence" that was forming around a plan to end the global recession.

He also seemed to pooh-pooh all those reports about European resistance to stimulus spending like the $787 billion package (PL 111-5) that Congress enacted and Obama signed in February.