“I'd like to see more simplicity in the system. I'd like to see more fairness in the system,” Obama said.

“Fairness, everybody paying their fair share, everybody taking responsibility I think is going to be very important. Some of those principles I've heard Republicans say they share. How we do that, the devil is in the details,” he added.

Obama connected corporate tax reform to infrastructure spending.

“We've got a lot of infrastructure we've got to rebuild in this country if we're going to be competitive,” he said. “We are way behind and early on we indicated that there's a way of us potentially doing corporate tax reform, lowering rates, eliminating loopholes so everybody's paying their fair share and during that transition also provided a mechanism where we can get some infrastructure built,” he said.

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), the incoming chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said tax reform is “no longer optional, Mr. President, it is essential.”

“Sure, there are disagreements on the details that cannot, at this time, be overlooked. But, on the basic question surrounding the need for reform, people in both parties have reached the same answer: Reform is necessary and it needs to happen sooner rather than later,” he said in a floor speech on Tuesday.

John McKechnie, partner at the Washington advocacy firm Total Spectrum, said Hatch is sending a signal to the Senate and the tax community that he means business.

“I think credit unions should be particularly vigilant regarding tax reform in the first half of 2015—after that the chances begin to diminish. But early in the year, credit unions would be wise to cover all the exits,” he said.