To Cut Debt, Obama Shifts on No Tax Vow

New York Times ^ | February 11, 2010 | Jackie Calmes

[reaganaut1]

President Obama, still seeking to get Congressional Republicans to join in a bipartisan commission to reduce the federal debt, suggested he would be willing to break his campaign promise against raising taxes on households with less than $250,000 annual income.

“The whole point of it is to make sure that all ideas are on the table,” the president said in the interview on Tuesday with Bloomberg BusinessWeek that the publication released online today. That included not only tax increases, he added, but also spending on the popular government health programs, Medicare and Medicaid, whose fast-growing costs are driving the projections of unsustainable annual deficits in coming years.

“What I can’t do is to set the thing up where a whole bunch of things are off the table,” Mr. Obama said. “Some would say we can’t look at entitlements. There are going to be some that say we can’t look at taxes, and pretty soon, you just can’t solve the problem.”

Budget experts from conservative to liberal have long agreed that future deficits can only be brought under control by a combination of tax increases and spending cuts, especially in the benefit programs. Many of them criticized Mr. Obama during the campaign for promising in effect to exempt 95 percent of Americans from any tax increase; the wealthiest 5 percent, the critics said, cannot shoulder the likely load without harming investment and economic growth.

Last summer, with the recession’s costs having forced deficits above $1 trillion annually on average, Mr. Obama’s spokesman, Robert Gibbs, said the president stood by his campaign promise after the top economic advisers — Lawrence H. Summers and Timothy F. Geithner, the Treasury secretary — suggested the administration was reconsidering in light of the worsened fiscal forecasts.

[FlingWingFlyer]

“Read my lips.”

[silverleaf]

well, well

BO’s breaking his biggest campaign promise may just bring the GOP to the table to share the blame

Read my lips! (sarc)

[Red Badger]

37 seconds..........

[avacado]

President Obama, still seeking to get Congressional Republicans to join in a bipartisan commission to reduce the federal debt, suggested he would be willing to break his campaign promise against raising taxes on households with less than $250,000 annual income.

Huh? Does that sentence make it appear that Republicans want to raise taxes on the middle class?

[Recon Dad]

Did I here someone say, One Term!

[equalitybeforethelaw]

Ahh, I see now, the requirement to raise taxes will be the fault of the Republicans. Wow - this is insane. The man-boy has completely detached from reality.

[henkster]

You are exactly right. The idea is to get some sort of package of tax cuts loved by the GOP and tax increases that are revenue neutral. When the GOP signs off on it, he has the state-run media run the ads showing the GOP increased taxes, but silent on his and his party’s complicity.

But who would be so stupid as to fall for such an obvious ploy? /s/

[truthguy]

Sometime back I saw on TV an economist who totally destroyed the arguement that the people above $250K could fix the tax problem. These people are already paying at least 50% Tax now. How much more can you increase their taxes? No they aren’t paying 50% Federal, but if you add state and property taxes and all the like most people in this category are paying at least 50%. You simply cannot get much more money out of this group of people. Obama simply doesn’t understand economics.

[Allegra]

That ought to cause those sagging approval ratings to shoot right back up. < /s>

[Paperdoll]

I KNEW IT WAS COMING, I JUST DIDN’T ESPECT IT TO TAKE HIM THIS LONG.

[RobRoy]

I go more Galt every month.

[silverleaf]

His interviews on the economy are not even coherent? The man-child is floundering! Someone from the GOP throw him a rope

no,wait...