Last year Obama said that he would not raises your taxes one dime if you make less than $250,000 a year; or was it $208,000? I can’t remember honestly as the number fluctuated like the wind does in March. President Obama knows that his health care plan will bankrupt the country if he can’t get more money via the taxpayer to cover the current cost of $1.6 trillion. He can only get so much money just by taxing the rich alone. You know, the people who create the small businesses that drive the bulk of the economy. Well on one of the Sunday news shows Obama’s wonder boy Tim “TurboTax” Geithner said the administration won’t rule out new taxes for the middle class.
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.”
More from Yahoo News
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and National Economic Council Director Larry Summers both sidestepped questions on Obama’s intentions about taxes. Geithner said the White House was not ready to rule out a tax hike to lower the federal deficit; Summers said Obama’s proposed health care overhaul needs funding from somewhere.
“There is a lot that can happen over time,” Summers said, adding that the administration believes “it is never a good idea to absolutely rule things out, no matter what.”
During his presidential campaign, Obama repeatedly vowed “you will not see any of your taxes increase one single dime.” But the simple reality remains that his ambitious overhaul of how Americans receive health care — promised without increasing the federal deficit — must be paid for.
Remember that former President George H. W. Bush foolishly claimed “Read my lips: no new taxes” and then come re-election time the voters showed him the door.
Just in case you forgot Obama’s pledge here is a reminder:
