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Two internal Democratic Party disputes this week are surfacing tensions over who the party should focus on: the poor or the middle class.

On Tuesday, an emerging $450 billion tax deal on Capitol Hillhit a snag when liberal Democrats and the White House insisted it also include a permanent expansion of low-income tax credits that have been a quiet but critical feature of President Obama's anti-poverty policy since 2009. Before the uproar, Democrats appeared willing to acceptthe deal, which was to extend tax provisions benefiting industries large and small, in part because Republicans agreed to include a tax credit that makes it easier to payfor college. That is largely a middle-class policy.

Also on Tuesday, Sen. Charles Schumer criticized the White House and Democrats for pursuing passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010 rather than continuing "to propose middle-class-oriented programs." The New York Democrat added that "Democrats blew the opportunity." The Affordable Care Act has many features, many of which are designed to aid the middle class, but the preponderance of the beneficiaries are poor or working class. Former White House officials ridiculed Schumer for the comment, and it no doubt angered current officials, too.

The disputes echo a broader debate within the Democratic camp that intensified this month after the mid-term elections about whether the party is too liberal or not liberal enough. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) appointed Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)to Senateleadership as a nod to the idea that more populist voices need to be leading the party.

The year began, however, with a push in another direction, after the president's reelection failed to produce legislative achievements in 2013.

Obama had zeroed in on reducing the gap between the rich and the poor as a top goal of his second term, but a number of Democrats, notably Schumer, began pressuring him to move away from the language of inequality. Schumer and other Democrats argued that inequality was too divisive a concept, and it was important instead to focus on bread-and-butter issues like affordable access to a college education.

Both the White House and the Senate agreed that the decline of middle-class incomes was the most serious issue we face in this country, but the focus had to be on how to get middle-class incomes up, rather than drive other peoples incomes down, Schumer told me at the time.

The debate over inequality the gap between the rich and the poor was largely about messaging. On most economic issues, the Democratic Party is unified. They want to raise the minimum wage. They want to fund domestic programs, like schools and infrastructure, through modestly higher taxes on the wealthy. Still, Obama shifted his tone and rarely mentioned inequality this year.

But this week's issues showdisagreements about strategy can have significant effects on actual policies that make a difference in people's lives.

'There is no political upside to the President taking this stand -- just a lot of upside for more than twenty million hard-pressed families trying to raise their children with a little less poverty and a little more dignity and opportunity," said Gene Sperling, a former top economic adviser to Obama.

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Wonkblog: Democrats have a new internal battle: the middle class vs. the poor