Video: Obama officially retreats on zero tax increases for middle class

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Video: Obama officially retreats on zero tax increases for middle class

posted at 12:57 pm on July 23, 2009 by Ed Morrissey
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Most of the media’s focus from last night’s press conference has been directed towards Barack Obama’s response to Lynn Sweet’s question about Henry Gates’ arrest, but they missed a key exchange — and a major walkback on tax policy for Barack Obama. Obama has insisted that middle-class Americans would 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,” both during the campaign and while in office. David Axelrod started backing away from that pledge last month, when CBO scoring on ObamaCare turned really ugly, but until last night Obama had not retreated in the least. Buried in the interminable answer given to Ben Feller of the AP on how Obama planned to pay for health-care reform was this nugget, which I’ve paired with Obama’s pledge from a year ago:

The one commitment that I’ve been clear about is I don’t want that final one-third of the cost of health care to be completely shouldered on the backs of middle class families who are already struggling in a difficult economy.

And so, if I see a proposal that is primarily funded through taxing middle class families, I’m going to be opposed to that because I think there are better ideas to do it.

I’ve bolded the weasel words. This represents a major shift in Obama’s tax positions. No longer will middle-class families see their taxes “actually decrease,” as Obama pledged in the campaign. Now, he will be fine with raising their taxes to pay for his massive socialization of health care, as long as he can say that the taxes won’t “primarily” come from the middle class. He doesn’t want the burden “completely shouldered” by the middle class, but that leaves a lot of room as to how much they will pay in higher taxes and fees for it. Finally, Obama says he would “be opposed” to such an approach, but never says that he would veto it if it hit his desk.

We knew this expiration date was coming. The question will be whether the press will report it.

http://hotair.com/archives/2009/07/2...-middle-class/