Breaking Tax Promises

From Jacob Feldman on Thursday, July 9, 2009 3:20 PM

Once every blue moon, the mainstream media calls out Obama on his broken promise not to raise taxes on Americans making less than $250,000 a year. An Associated Press article yesterday noted:

“President Barack Obama promised to fix health care and trim the federal budget deficit, all without raising taxes on anyone but the wealthiest Americans. It's a promise he's already broken and will likely have to break again… ‘Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes,’ Obama told a crowd in Dover, N.H., last year.”

Americans for Tax Reform has been documenting Obama’s string of broken tax promises. Obama first shattered his $250K promise only 16 days into the presidency when he enacted a 61 cent tax increase on cigarette packs, disproportionately hurting low-income Americans. Next, Obama aggressively supported the cap-and-trade tax that, if the bill passes the Senate, will increase energy costs for an average American family by $1,500. Now, in a recent interview with Obama’s Senior Adviser David Axelrod, the administration is waffling about how taxes will be raised for health care reform. When asked if tax increases on families making less than $250,000 might pay for health care, Sen. Schumer, D-N.Y. said, “There are lots of things on the table now.”

The appeals of the mainstream media to break Obama’s tax promise for the good of America are an attempt to butter up the American people to embrace the costs of health care reform. The media’s job isn’t to sweep up shattered promises. It’s to point out the cost of the broken glass.

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