Obama Officials Signal Tax Hikes For Middle Class Loom

You can't say that you weren't warned. I've been saying exactly that ever since President Obama unveiled his massive spending priorities. There was absolutely no way he could ever intend to pay for any of it without raising taxes across the board. That includes allowing the Bush era tax hikes to expire.

Now, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner (a tax cheat who couldn't pay his own tax obligations on time), and National Economic Council Director Larry Summers are both saying that tax hikes for the middle class are on the horizon. Neither could rule out tax hikes on the middle class.

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.

"If we want an economy that's going to grow in the future, people have to understand we have to bring those deficits down. And it's going to be difficult, hard for us to do. And the path to that is through health care reform," Geithner said. "We're not at the point yet where we're going to make a judgment about what it's going to take."

That includes raising taxes above and beyond the tax rates from 2000.

That means that if you benefited from lower taxes for the past eight years, get ready to be a whole lot poorer because the government will be digging ever deeper into your pocketbook to pay for a whole bunch of programs of dubious worth.

Moreover, the current recession isn't over, and they're looking to raise taxes into the teeth of a recession. If there's ever a way to cause a double-dipping recession, this is it. Signaling the tax hikes now will flatten whatever recovery is pending because people will save money in anticipation of the looming tax hikes and will not grow their businesses or spend their money nearly as much because they do not want to be caught short as a result of the tax hikes.

It also means that Obama lied about his promise to keep taxes as low as they are for 95% of taxpayers. Never mind that he blew that promise the moment he raised tobacco taxes to fund S-CHIP earlier this year. He's now looking to completely sink that promise to push for a health care overhaul that lacks a CBO stamp of approval since it will never do what was alleged - to cut costs of health care overall.

In other words, Obama's claims that he will cut the deficit by revising health care is an absolute lie. Obama will be raising taxes, the deficit will continue growing, and we'll be left with an even bigger mess than had Obama done nothing.