Backing Off the Tax Pledge? (It was a "preference" or "stance".)

Daily Beast ^ | May 13, 2010 | Lloyd Grove

[reaganaut1]

Remember President Obama’s supposedly inviolable pledge—repeatedly uttered during the 2008 campaign and at countless town meetings since the inauguration—that he would never raise taxes on middle-class citizens who earn $250,000 a year or less?

This morning at a Manhattan breakfast sponsored by Thomson Reuters, White House Budget Director Peter Orszag threw that pledge out the window. Instead, he described Obama’s “read my lips, no new taxes” pledge as a “stance” and a “preference” that is subject to study by the president’s newly formed bipartisan Commission on Fiscal Responsibility.

“The president has been very clear about what he prefers,” Orszag said under questioning from Thomson Reuters’ Chrystia Freeland. “That was his stance during the campaign, and he still believes that’s the right course forward. But he has also been very clear that we shall let the commission go do its work.”

Freeland followed up, asking if that means the White House might be open to the idea. “Perhaps here’s some give there?”

“I don’t feel like I’m in a position to say that there will be any give there,” Orszag parried. “But the president has been very clear that the commission should go explore whatever options they all deem to be appropriate.”

Later on during the breakfast, Orszag resisted my attempts to pin him down when I asked if the White House could live with a tax increase on the middle class.

“No, I didn’t say that,” he answered. “What I did say is look, the typical thing that’s going to happen, and it’s already been happening, is everyone is going to come along with this idea—the value added tax, this thing under $250,000, Social Security, Medicare changes

[throwback]

I think the only question now is regarding timing. Will enough economic destruction be apparent to enough voters at the appropriate election decision points to cause them to remove these economic anarchists before they’ve reached critical mass and started an irreversible chain of destruction? Trying to sift this regime’s language to find the lies is pointless. What they’ve always said was and is meaningless.

[ConjunctionJunction]

“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.”

So a “firm pledge” is now just a “preference” or a “stance”. Nice how they do that, but will the folks buy it?

[RichInOC]

Jim Geraghty’s Law: All Barack Obama statements come with an expiration date. All of them.

[TLI]

The president has been very clear about what he prefers,” Orszag said under questioning from Thomson Reuters’ Chrystia Freeland. “That was his stance during the campaign, and he still believes that’s the right course forward. But he has also been very clear that we shall let the commission go do its work.”

I don’t feel like I’m in a position to say that there will be any give there,” Orszag parried. “But the president has been very clear that the commission should go explore whatever options they all deem to be appropriate.”

Ok, let us be "very clear" on the option the American Citizens are going to "explore."

NØVEMBER



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[a fool in paradise]

“Read my lips” and the Pravda Media gives the Obamunist a pass.

[a fool in paradise]

It’s only a lie if you MEANT to uphold it...

[a fool in paradise]

If Obama were serious about the no-middle-class tax pledge, he wouldn't have increased spending so much. It was just a lie to get him elected.

As was his lie about being a Christian.

As was his lie about being a uniter.

As was his lie...

[ExTxMarine]

“...But he has also been very clear that we shall let the commission go do its work...”

I don’t recall him suggesting this commission BEFORE he was elected! He didn’t say during his campaign, “I am going to form a commission to decide what we should do to fix the outrageous spending that MY budget creates.”

I really do NOT remember that speech. Can someone look that up and post it for me?/s

[PghBaldy]

Yep. As a matter of fact, IIRC, the first tax increase was the cig tax last year. Affects lower income people disproportionately.

[SunkenCiv]

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[PSYCHO-FREEP]

“Let the commission go do it's work.”

Huh?......Let the commission circumvent the Legislature?

Well then, remember when MaObama PROMISED that when asked the question about raising our taxes, his reply was; “LET ME BE CLEAR,......if you are a middle class American, and you earn less than $150,000, your taxes WILL NOT increase one dime under my administration!” (Statement made before the election after he had been voted in by the primaries.)