Axelrod Discusses Breaking Yet Another Obama Pledge

by William Teach | June 28, 2009 4:40 pm

Not that the Democrat Congress and the Obama administration hasn’t already broken their pledge to not raise taxes on those making less than $250k a year already (cigarette tax, cap and tax bill, among others), but, we all a saw those of us who were not hypnotized by Obama saw the taxes increases coming, and here is another example that Obama is a liar[1]

President Obama’s top political adviser refused today to rule out the possibility that the White House might agree to a tax hike on health insurance plans that would hit middle-income Americans.

Speaking on ABC’s “This Week” program, David Axelrod declined to repeat Obama’s “firm pledge” during the campaign that families making under $250,000 will not see “any form of tax increase, not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes.”

Instead, Axelrod said the president has no interest in “drawing lines in the sand” on the issue of how to pay for the costly health reform plan making its way through Congress.

“One of the problems we’ve had in this town is that people draw lines in the sand and they stop talking to each other. And you don’t get anything done,” Axxelrod said. “That’s not the way the president approaches this.”

Lines in the sand?

Q: Can you make an absolute, read-my-lips pledge[2] that there will be no tax increases of any kind for anyone earning under $200,000 a year?

CLINTON: I will let the taxes on people making more than $250,000 a year go back to the rates that they were paying in the 1990s.

Q: Senator Obama, would you take the same pledge? No tax increases on people under $250,000?

OBAMA: I not only have pledged not to raise their taxes, I’ve been the first candidate in this race to specifically say I would cut their taxes. We are going to offset the payroll tax, the most regressive of our taxes, so that families who are middle-income individuals making $75,000 a year or less, that they would get a tax break so that families would see up to $1,000 worth of relief.

Q: You both have now just taken this pledge on people under $250,000 and $200,000.

OBAMA: Well, it depends on how you calculate it. But it would be between $200,000 and $250,000.

I said I would[3] cut taxes for people making $75,000 a year or less. I’d cut taxes for seniors who are making $50,000 a year or less.

A: I want to eliminate the Bush tax cuts. And what I have said is, I will institute a middle-class tax cut. So, if you’re making $75,000, if you’re making $50,000 a year, you will see an extra $1,000 a year offsetting on your payroll tax.

Q: Define middle class.[4]

A: Well, look, I think that the definitions are always a little bit rough, but if you’re making $100,000 a year or less, then you’re pretty solidly middle class, and you deserve relief right now, as opposed to paying higher taxes. But people who are making over $200,000 or $250,000 have benefited the most from economic growth.

Change means a tax code that rewards the American workers and small businesses who deserve it. I will stop giving tax breaks to corporations that ship jobs overseas, and start giving them to those that create jobs in America. I will eliminate capital gains taxes for the small businesses that create the high-wage, high-tech jobs of tomorrow. I will cut taxes–cut taxes–for 95% of all working families. In an economy like this, the last thing we should do is raising taxes on the middle-class. (Source: Speech at 2008 Democratic National Convention Aug 27, 2008 )

Hmm, those seem like pretty specific lines in the sand, don’t they?

Endnotes:
  1. here is another example that Obama is a liar: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2009/06/28/axelrod_wont_rule_out_tax_incr.html
  2. Q: Can you make an absolute, read-my-lips pledge: http://www.ontheissues.org/2008_Dems_Philly.htm
  3. I said I would: http://www.ontheissues.org/2008_Fox_News_Sunday.htm
  4. Q: Define middle class.: http://www.ontheissues.org/2008_Late_Edition.htm

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