Obama Flirts With Breaking Campaign Pledge on Taxes to Pay for Health Care Reform - Political News - FOXNews.com

When it came to taxes, candidate Barack Obama seemed to clearly draw a line in the sand.
"If you are a family making less than $250,000 a year, you will not see your taxes go up," Obama said repeatedly on the campaign trail last year.
But that line in the sand may get harder to spot now that Obama has assumed power and as some lawmakers lobby to tax a portion of the most generous employer-provided health insurance policies to help pay for the president's signature initiative of health care reform.
"The president's going to watch the process," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Tuesday about efforts to overhaul the health care system. "He's going to be flexible, and we'll evaluate as we go."
Obama has proposed limiting itemized deductions for people who make more than $250,000 a year, but that would only raise a third of the lowest estimated cost of adding 40 or 50 million people to the ranks of the insured.
Computerized medical records and other efficiency improvements and emphasizing wellness and preventive care could further reduce costs but not nearly enough, according to Ryan Ellis of Americans for Tax Fairness.
"What the president is talking about won't even pay for a fraction of that," he said.
The first President Bush learned the cost of breaking a campaign promise on taxes can be high. Bush failed to win a second term in 1992 after reneging on his earlier declaration: "Read my lips. No new taxes."
Ellis says Obama already broke his tax promise when he increased the tax on cigarettes a little more than two weeks after taking office to pay for an expansion of the children's health insurance program.
"There aren't many rich smokers in the United States," Ellis said.
Republican presidential nominee John McCain's proposal to tax health care benefits drew strong criticism from the president during the campaign.
White House officials say privately McCain's proposal was a long way from taxing a small portion of employer provided health benefits. And the president told ABC News he's against even that, though he's willing to listen to the proposal, at least for now.
Aides say one lesson of past failed attempts at health care reform is, don't draw lines in the sand.
"Bright lines that cause people to leave the table," Gibbs said. "Everybody's still at the table."
If bright lines cause people to leave the table, bright lights are why presidents prefer not to negotiate in the press. Gibbs says Obama's clearly laid out his financing plan. He just won't say "Read my lips."

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Wife to Tim, mommy to Jacob, Joshua, Leanna and Liberty (5/28/10)

Our website
http://homeschool-stories.blogspot.com/




"Every morning in Africa, an antelope wakes up. It knows it must outrun the fastest lion, or it will be killed.
Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest antelope, or it will starve.
It doesn't matter whether you're the lion or an antelope - when the sun comes up, you'd better be running."
-African Proverb

Does this really surprise you? There is no way that we can do all these things he wants without loosing jobs and having our taxes SKYROCKET...which is the exact word he said in one of the debates when McCain talked about tax and crap

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Hosting: Bereaved and Hobby Lobby boards

Married 31 years to Bob
Mom to Jason (married to dd Angie) Scotty (my ray of sunshine) Robin (married to son Chris) and Danielle
GMa (as they call me) to Jordan 13 and Cody 12

nope, not surprised at all. just wondering what's going to happen when all the people who actually believed his promises find out that it's not going to be what they expected.

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Wife to Tim, mommy to Jacob, Joshua, Leanna and Liberty (5/28/10)

Our website
http://homeschool-stories.blogspot.com/




"Every morning in Africa, an antelope wakes up. It knows it must outrun the fastest lion, or it will be killed.
Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest antelope, or it will starve.
It doesn't matter whether you're the lion or an antelope - when the sun comes up, you'd better be running."
-African Proverb

My guess would be that it depends a lot on the economic situation. If things are going well, then the tax increase may not be as big a deal. As I recall, back in 1992 there was a bit of an economic slump that also played a role in the first Bush not getting a second term. I wonder if we are back to "Voodoo Economics" again...

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JB King

BMath '97
(Computer Science and Combinatorics & Optimization majors)

Well, as Rahm Emmanuel said ""you never want a serious crisis to go to waste. … It's an opportunity to do things that you think you could not do before." So as long as they can parlay the economy into a government takeover of education, energy and health care, what are a "few" broken promises?

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Wife to Scott
Mom to Jacob, 10 and Jonah, 7




"You are a king, then!" said Pilate.
Jesus answered, "You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me." John 18:37

The real impact occurs over a very long time, so Obama will be out of office. The problem is that these sorts of programs grow and become even worse over time. And of course the solution is always to make them even bigger!

I don't necessarily oppose the taxation of health care, although I do find it ironic given how much heat McCain took over it during the campaign. The real problem is in the rest of the sytem, especially government option and the overall cost.

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From the wild Irish slums of the 19th century Eastern seaboard, to the riot-torn suburbs of Los Angeles, there is one unmistakable lesson in American history; a community that allows a large number of men to grow up in broken families, dominated by women, never acquiring any stable relationship to male authority, never acquiring any set of rational expectations about the future -- that community asks for and gets chaos. Crime, violence, unrest, disorder -- most particularly the furious, unrestrained lashing out at the whole social structure -- that is not only to be expected; it is very near to inevitable. And it is richly deserved. ~ Daniel Patrick Moynihan (Democrat, NY)


Hosting Debate the Differences

The real problem is the idiots that believed the lies that came out of his mouth every time he opened it...

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Hosting: Bereaved and Hobby Lobby boards

Married 31 years to Bob
Mom to Jason (married to dd Angie) Scotty (my ray of sunshine) Robin (married to son Chris) and Danielle
GMa (as they call me) to Jordan 13 and Cody 12

ya that.

Jeff, I understand it will take longer for some things to make an impact. But it's the people that really think Obama is going to pay their mortgage that I wonder about. What happens when they realize he's not paying anything?

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Wife to Tim, mommy to Jacob, Joshua, Leanna and Liberty (5/28/10)

Our website
http://homeschool-stories.blogspot.com/




"Every morning in Africa, an antelope wakes up. It knows it must outrun the fastest lion, or it will be killed.
Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest antelope, or it will starve.
It doesn't matter whether you're the lion or an antelope - when the sun comes up, you'd better be running."
-African Proverb