With all of the talk going on about the possibility of a middle class tax hike, President Barack Obama needs to tread very, very carefully. As an independent voter, I think many of my fellow independents pulled the lever for Obama due to his repeated refrain during the campaign of not raising taxes on those households making under $250,000 per year. Sitting here and thinking about it, there are no households in my immediate family, extended family, within my network of close friends, and even in my network of “sort of” close friends who bring home more than $250,000 per year. In other words, according to President Obama’s campaign promise everyone that I care about should be safe from a tax hike.
However, there is a lot of rhetoric out in the political sphere right now about the possibility of raising taxes on the very population that President Obama promised not to raise taxes on. Let’s listen to our friends at CNN…
I don’t buy the clarification offered by White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs. I think that both Timothy Geithner and Larry Summers aren’t skilled in the growing level of doublespeak in this administration. In other words, the further they get from being at President Obama’s side, the more we can expect them to tell us what’s really going on.
It’s scary. President Obama needs to tread lightly on this subject because if he raises taxes – even temporarily – on the middle class, he can kiss the majority in the House and Senate goodbye. Americans don’t like to be lied to. Let’s all hope that President Obama keeps this promise.
“Americans don’t like to be lied to.”
Nobody does, but as long as there’s government, corporations and ad agencies we’d best get used to it. I wish it was possible to take people in power at their word, but I’ve long since moved past that. I vote based on who has the best ideas based on my belief system like everybody else does, but I hold out no hope that any of them will amount to anything until bills are signed.
I wanted to ask why President Obama felt the need to ask Georgetown University to cover any and all signs except “Pipe and WHAT?” before he spoke there. This has caused so much controversy with people that I would love to know his reasoning. Of all the things the President put up with during his campaign, could he not ignore a few signs and symbols…and why does he need to ignore them? This is a very diverse country that is home to anyone’s “tired and poor” or rich and famous. Please, Mr. President, explain yourself. I voted for you and I have tried to tell my friends to “support your President.” But this makes me angry that the IHS symbol of the Jesuit faith was covered and any other symbol, for all that goes, because it just seems to be a strange request for a man that is supposed to be so strong…What goes here?