Imminent Middle Class Tax Hikes?
When George Stephanopoulos asked Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner whether he’d rule out tax increases, he got a less-than-enthusiastic response. Here’s what Stephanopoulos wrote:
To get the economy back on track, will President Barack Obama have to break his pledge not to raise taxes on 95 percent of Americans? In a “This Week” exclusive, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner told me, “We’re going to have to do what’s necessary.”
Geithner was clear that he believes a key component of economic recovery is deficit reduction. When I gave him several opportunities to rule out a middle class tax hike, he wouldn’t do it.
“We have to bring these deficits down very dramatically,” Geithner told me. “And that’s going to require some very hard choices.” “We will not get this economy back on track, recovery will be not strong and sustained, unless we convince the American people that we are going to have the will to bring these deficits down once recovery is firmly established,” he said.
That’s Washingtonspeak for “Brace yourselves. Tax increases are imminent.” Larry Summers is signalling that middle class tax increases are imminent, too:
Summers, an ambitious pol said to be salivating over the prospect of becoming the next chairman of the Federal Reserve, was asked on CBS’ “Face the Nation” if even the middle class could face higher taxes under the president’s ambitious healthcare overhaul. “There’s a lot that could happen over time,” he said sounding like an oracle. “It’s never a good idea to absolutely rule things, rule things out, no matter what.”
Proving that fact is stranger than fiction, the LA Times reminds us what Candidate Obama said about tax increases:
“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.”
Memo to Larry Summers: It sounds like your boss ruled something out without equivocation or hesitation. Of course, people with a brain didn’t take Candidate Obama’s pledge seriously. Democrats raise taxes to pay for increased spending. That’s Politics 101. It’s as predictable as the Yankees spending lavishly on the free agent market.
The Obama administration’s irresponsible spending spree caused record deficits. Left unchecked, those deficits will cause higher interest rates and high inflation rates. Had Democrats decided that they would’ve been sensible, there wouldn’t need to be a raft of proposed massive tax increases.
Unfortunately, President Obama and Speaker Pelosi are wedded to spending irresponsible amounts of the people’s money. That’s why defeating liberals all across the nation is vitally important in 2010. Our wallets can’t afford to keep this leadership team intact in 2011. The economy can’t afford it, either.
Technorati Tags: Economy, Tim Geithner, Larry Summers, President Obama, Speaker Pelosi, Tax Increases, Deficits, Inflation, Interest Rates, Spending, Democrats, Election 2010
Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog
August 3rd, 2009 at 11:37 am
With any luck, they won’t be able to start the new round of major tax increases until, say, June of next year, when even ostrich-type donkeys won’t be able to deny their necessity to reduce a deficit that would scare Jimmuh.
Unfortunately, being more concerned about reelection than the health of the economy or the security of our nation, the jackasses will put it off until after next year’s midterms, and quite frankly (as shown by the millions who voted for “Pretty-face Dumbo”) I doubt if the voting public in general is smart enough to see the tax hikes coming, even when we’ve now been told they are.