WASHINGTON – Senate Republicans derailed legislation Saturday to extend expiring tax cuts at all but the highest income levels in a political showdown that paradoxically clears a path for a compromise with the White House on steps to boost the economy.

President Obama has signaled that he will bow to Republican demands for extending tax cuts at all income levels, and his remarks capped a day that lurched between political conflict and talk of compromise on an issue that played a leading role in last month’s elections.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., eyeing the 2012 campaign, accused Republicans of siding with “millionaires and billionaires” with their rejection of proposals that would let tax cuts lapse on seven-figure incomes.

Republicans noted that unemployment rose to 9.8 percent last month and said it made no sense to raise taxes on anyone in a weak economy.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he hoped for an agreement by the middle or end of next week on legislation that would combine an extension of tax cuts with a renewal of expiring jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed.

Officials have said that, in addition to tax cuts and unemployment benefits, the White House wants to include renewal of several other tax provisions that are expiring. They include a break for lower- and middle-class wage earners, even if they don’t make enough to pay the government, as well as for college students and for companies that hire the unemployed.

Key lawmakers and administration officials have been at work negotiating the terms of a possible deal for several days.

Obama said in the 2008 presidential race and this year that he wanted to let cuts expire above incomes of $200,000 for individuals and $250,000 for couples.

In the Senate, a bill to enact Obama’s original position was blocked on a vote of 53-36, seven votes short of the 60 needed to advance.

The second measure would have let taxes rise on incomes over $1 million. It appeared crafted to appeal to senators from states with large high-income populations and to cast Republicans as protectors of the rich.

It was blocked on a vote of 53-37, also seven short of the 60 needed. A slightly different lineup of Democrats sided with Republicans, including Sens. Dick Durbin of Illinois, Tom Harkin of Iowa, Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia and Russell Feingold of Wisconsin.

Indiana’s senators were split.

Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., said he would have preferred a chance to vote to extend the tax cuts for all tax brackets, but he didn’t want to deny lower- and middle-income earners a break just because the measure didn’t include a tax cut for wealthy taxpayers.

“I was forced to choose between two options, neither of which I agree with – ending a filibuster on legislation that, in my view, should have included a two-year extension of all the expiring tax relief and voting against $1.3 trillion in tax relief for the middle-class. I hope and expect to have an opportunity to vote for what I think is the best policy in these uncertain times: extensions of all the expiring tax cuts. Until then, I’m going to vote for tax relief every chance I get,” he said in a statement released by his office.

Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., who supported the GOP filibuster, did not issue a statement.

Sylvia A. Smith of The Journal Gazette contributed to this story.