During his campaign, President Obama always said that families making less than $250,000 per year would not see their taxes increase. Now, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and National Economic Council Director Larry Summers are evading questions tackling that issue. All Geithner says is that its important to lower the federal deficit and all Summers says is that the funding for Obama's health care plan has to come from somewhere. Neither one of them will rule out a tax increase.
The economy is still slow, the unemployment rate is high, and the deficit is horrible. I think everyone agrees that the president came into power when the country was practically falling apart. But aren't there other ways for us to fix these problems that don't involve hurting the little guy? And didn't the president realize that fixing so many problems was going to be expensive in the first place? Shouldn't he have taken everything into consideration before making promises he couldn't keep?
I think President Obama's strong point before the election was looking calm and rational throughout his whole campaign. I think it made him seem... trustworthy. But if he goes back on one of his biggest promises, he loses all of that. The public will no longer trust him and he can just wave goodbye to a second term.
Financially, a lot of people probably wouldn't notice a slight tax increase, but conceptually, it makes a big difference. If the White House increases taxes on families making less than $250K per year, it loses all credibility with the American people.
I know that things are difficult for everyone, including the government. But I don't think that withdrawing promises is the solution for the president. Especially when those promises were key to getting him elected in the first place.
Maybe during his re-election campaign he can make plans to raise taxes on middle class people, but in the meantime, I think he will have to figure out a different way to manage. .
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