President Obama (February 4, 2009):
“I can make a firm pledge, under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes.”
In the fifteen months of his presidency, President Obama has enacted into law, 25 tax increases totaling more than $670 billion, at least 14 of the taxes were violations of the Obama’s pledge not to raise any kind of taxes on Americans earning less than $200,000 for singles and $250,000 for married couples.
The President’s list of violations include:
* Tobacco tax increase and expanded enforcement authority*
* New tax on individuals who do not purchase government‐approved health insurance
* A 40% excise tax on high-cost health insurance plans
* A new “medicine cabinet tax” on over-the-counter purchases from HSAs, FSAs, and HRAs increasing the non-medical early withdrawal HSA penalty from 10 to 20 percent
* A “special-needs kids” tax (capping FSA contributions at $2500)
* An increase in the top Medicare payroll tax rate from 2.9 to 3.8 percent (in so doing raising the top marginal tax rate on labor from 37.9 to 43.4 percent)
* A hike in the capital gains rate from 15 to 23.8 percent
* A hike in the dividends tax rate from 15 to 43.4 percent
* A hike in the “other” investment tax rate from 35 to 43.4 percent
* An increase in the “reduction of the deduction” for medical expenses from 7.5 to 10 percent of AGI
* New annual taxes on health insurance companies, innovator drug companies, and medical device manufacturers
* A 10% excise tax for tanning salon sessions eliminating the deduction for employer-provided retiree Rx coverage in coordination with Medicare Part D
* Creating the “economic substance doctrine,” which allows the IRS to disallow perfectly-legal tax deductions it deems are only being used to reduce tax liabilities
* Requiring 1099-MISC information reporting for small business payments to corporations, increasing compliance burdens for small employers
Yesterday the President showed his typical arrogance and disregard for the public as he “amused” himself at the expense of the tax party protesters:
“In all, we passed 25 different tax cuts last year. And one thing we haven’t done is raise income taxes on families making less than $250,000 a year — another promise that we kept,” he told supporters at the Arsht Center for the Performing Arts. “So I’ve been a little amused over the last couple of days where people have been having these rallies about taxes. You would think they would be saying thank you.”
Sorry, Mr. Obama, we will not thank you for raising our taxes and breaking your pledge not to raise taxes on those making less than $250,000. We will not thank you for further deepening the financial crisis by raising taxes in the midst of a severe recession. We will not thank you for creating the largest debt obligations ever in the history of the United States. We will not thank you for shoving a multi-trillion dollar healthcare insurance bill burden on American taxpayers when clearly a super-majority of Americans did not want it.
No thanks coming from here, Mr. Obama. You will have to look elsewhere for thanks.
h/t Yid with Lid
BEAR TO THE RIGHT 