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Wednesday, April 1, 2009

New Taxes: Obama Breaks Promise to Those Earning Under $250K

As a candidate for President, Barack Obama repeatedly pledged that families with incomes under $250,000 would not be hit with a tax increase. He put it this way:

"I can make a firm pledge…Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes."

The pledge was key to Obama's ability to deflect Republican claims, since justified, that he would in fact raise taxes on those same people through indirect means.

The tactic worked, and the promise has now been broken.

Higher taxes on tobacco products have gone into effect today, hitting particularly hard lower income folks who are more likely to smoke. Worse, it takes advantage of a group of people (smokers) who are often addicted to the product being taxed, making the tax more difficult to avoid.

To those of us active in the 2008 campaign, we knew Obama’s rhetoric couldn't square with reality. There's simply no way to fund Obama's myriad of promises without a dramatic rise in the size - and cost - of government, and that money needs to come from somewhere.

For now, Obama's budget plans to stick the bill for his huge increases in the size and power of government to the next generation in the form of skyrocketing national debt that will eventually have to be repaid by our children and grandchildren. They will be sadded with perpetually higher tax rates because the Democrat-controlled federal government today has such a warped view of the appropriate size, scope and cost of government.

Barack Obama and the Democrats continue to use the current economic downturn as justification for all kinds of new spending, much of which has little to do with the overall health of the economy, or "creating jobs."

The Associated Press has an excellent story on Barack Obama’s now-broken promise to not raise taxes on those earning under $250,000 per year. See: PROMISES, PROMISES: Obama tax pledge up in smoke


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