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Politics

Obama. Taxes. Lies.

Radley Balko | 2.12.2010 1:55 PM

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Obama, during the 2008 campaign:

"If you are a family making less than $ 250,000 a year……you will not see your taxes go up. Not your capital gains tax, not your payroll tax, not your income Tax, no taxes. Your taxes will not go up."

Obama in an interview with Bloomberg this week:

President Barack Obama said he is "agnostic" about raising taxes on households making less than $250,000 as part of a broad effort to rein in the budget deficit.

Obama, in a Feb. 9 Oval Office interview, said that a presidential commission on the budget needs to consider all options for reducing the deficit, including tax increases and cuts in spending on entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare.

"The whole point of it is to make sure that all ideas are on the table," the president said in the interview with Bloomberg BusinessWeek, which will appear on newsstands Friday. "So what I want to do is to be completely agnostic, in terms of solutions."

He makes lying sound so reasonable, doesn't he?

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Radley Balko is a journalist at The Washington Post.

PoliticsPolicyEconomicsTaxesBarack Obama
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  1. John-David   15 years ago

    He just doesn't care which Bush he apes anymore.

    1. joe from lol   15 years ago

      "He just doesn't care which Bush he apes anymore."

      ZOMG TEH RACIST!!!!1!

      1. Reverend Al   15 years ago

        Assign John-David to a particularly harsh re-education camp, preferably near Detroit.

        1. John-David   15 years ago

          I knew that enough smart-asses would get that, and appreciate that you weren't niggardly with your responses.

          1. Reverend Al   15 years ago

            Make that Oakland.

            1. EEOC   15 years ago

              That'll do. D.C. is right out if he ever wants a job with the city government.

    2. mike   15 years ago

      using the term "apes" is almost as racist as calling him socialist.

  2. Mad Elf   15 years ago

    He just doesn't care which Bush he apes anymore.

    Racist!

  3. Johnny Longtorso   15 years ago

    Obama doesn't want to break his promise, but that nasty bipartisan commission will force him to.

    I wonder why the GOP keeps trying to not give him bipartisan cover? They must be obstructionists. As the opposition, it is their job to force Obama to break promises, thus freeing him from accountability for them.

  4. JW   15 years ago

    Well, this all depends on what you mean by "you" and "family."

  5. J sub D   15 years ago

    Anyone who believed that promise is too stupid to vote.

    1. Kolohe   15 years ago

      Well, I kinda believed it, just because I thought he would have enough self-interest in re-election to not make the same mistakes the last 1 term president did.

      I did think it would an awfully hard promise to keep, and would do stuff like the cig tax increase that he would then parse in a way to claim he wasn't breaking his promise.

      1. Kolohe   15 years ago

        Or what Oosik wrote about Lazarus Long's take on politicians - I would think (I still think) that Obama is more of a 'business politician' than a 'reform politician'

        (and that's OK!)

  6. P Brooks   15 years ago

    Krugman is appalled and horrified* that the President might not begrudge bankers their outrageous pay.

    *You'll have to go find it yourself

  7. Johnny Longtorso   15 years ago

    Our anti-government extremism forced poor Obama to lie to us. Poor dear.

    1. wackyjack   15 years ago

      I like EJ Dionne's line the other day.

      "Anti-statist radicals"

      As if there's any other kind.

    2. Team Blue   15 years ago

      Yes, it's all your fault for not hoping hard enough.

  8. Old Mexican   15 years ago

    President Barack Obama said he is "agnostic" about raising taxes on households making less than $250,000 as part of a broad effort to rein in the budget deficit.

    Which means a) He does not understand the meaning of the word "agnostic" and b) he's a damned liar.

    Obama, in a Feb. 9 Oval Office interview, said that a presidential commission on the budget needs to consider all options for reducing the deficit, including tax increases and cuts in spending on entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare.

    Which means a) He's NOT interested in all the options since HE was the one that increased the deficit, and b) he's a damned liar.

    "The whole point of it is to make sure that all ideas are on the table," the president said in the interview with Bloomberg BusinessWeek, which will appear on newsstands Friday. "So what I want to do is to be completely agnostic, in terms of solutions."

    Which means . . . oh, you get the point!

  9. hurly buehrle   15 years ago

    He does not understand the meaning of the word "agnostic"

    Well, if by "agnostic" he means "I don't really know what's going on, and I'm going to pretend that not knowing what's going on is a higher form of wisdom", I'm inclined to believe he's telling the truth.

    1. JLM   15 years ago

      I noticed (earlier today or yesterday) that one of the top search terms on Yahoo was the word "agnostic"- I suppose the spike had to do with this. Apparently the unwashed masses didn't know the meaning of the word either.

    2. Old Mexican   15 years ago

      Re: Hurly buehrle,

      Good point. Maybe he thinks agnostic is the same as "playing stupid", which he does very well.

      1. John Tagliaferro   15 years ago

        Shouldn't that be 'playing stupid'?

  10. Andrew Lynch   15 years ago

    He makes lying sound so reasonable, doesn't he?

    The best liars usually can.

    1. Marc   15 years ago

      I thought for sure you were going to link to something about Hitler.

  11. R C Dean   15 years ago

    At best, I think he meant "apathetic", not "agnostic."

  12. Episiarch   15 years ago

    I think Obama is going for the record of breaking every single one--or at least 95%--of his campaign promises. He wants to go down in history, after all.

    1. Andrew Lynch   15 years ago

      Who's his model? Has there been a president with a 100% broken-promise rate?

      1. Episiarch   15 years ago

        That's my point--I don't think there's been one who broke all of them yet. So he gets to be the first!

        1. sage   15 years ago

          That's my point--I don't think there's been one who broke all of them yet isn't a giant douche. So he gets to be the first next!

          1. Al Sharpton   15 years ago

            If President Obama becomes the first black douche bag, it will be better than another white one.

      2. Tulpa   15 years ago

        William Henry Harrison.

        Who ironically is one of my favorite presidents.

        1. Andrew Lynch   15 years ago

          Then you'll appreciate this. Hee!

        2. John Thacker   15 years ago

          What, you hate American Indians? Racist.

    2. Black Culture   15 years ago

      We're so proud of him. So proud.

  13. Marc   15 years ago

    Let's be fair -- it's not that he was lying when he said their taxes wouldn't go up. It's just that he didn't mean it so much.

    1. Joe M   15 years ago

      If you have your fingers crossed, it doesn't count as a lie.

      1. Horde4Lyfe   15 years ago

        +1

        I'll have to remember that when I tell my wife I took out the trash. 🙂

        1. DSM V   15 years ago

          You share your dating episodes with your wife???

    2. Enjoy Every Sandwich   15 years ago

      "I didn't lie; I just took the liberty of bullshitting you."

  14. John   15 years ago

    The Republicans have always had these goofy ideas about starving the beast. If you just cut taxes, spending will have to follow.

    The dems are now doing (quite effectively) the opposite of that. They raised the spending baseline by 50% this year knowing that it couldn't be paid for. Now, raising taxes will be the only way to keep the country from going bankrupt. And of course we could never survive a reduction in domestic spending by 50%.

    1. prolefeed   15 years ago

      Raising spending by 50%, followed by cutting spending by 50%, results in a 25% net spending cut. 1.5 X 0.5 = 0.75

      Or would, if Congress operated that way, which they don't.

    2. Jeffersonian   15 years ago

      And of course we could never survive a reduction in domestic spending by 50%.

      I'm willing to try it, just to see.

  15. prolefeed   15 years ago

    To be fair, Obama might actually have believed his original campaign promise at the time he made it, which would make him naive and deluded with a poor grasp of history and economics, rather than a liar on that particular topic.

    My gut feeling was he was deliberately lying -- he's certainly told some whoppers since then.

    1. John Tagliaferro   15 years ago

      Retard works with fewer words.

    2. R C Dean   15 years ago

      prolefeed, my working assumption is that Obama is naive, deluded, has a poor grasp of history and economics, and a liar. As well as narcissitic with tendencies to megalomania.

  16. Billy!   15 years ago

    Thank god he lied. If we won't massively cut government, which we won't because nobody but a few of us freaks actually want it to be cut(face it, guys), then higher taxes are a necessity. At least if you're the kinda guy that doesn't want to live through a greece/argetina style throwdown.

    1. miklen   15 years ago

      I don't believe for one second raising taxes is going to help. Raising taxes is one thing. Collecting additional revenue is a whole different thing. Everything I've read about Greece and Argentina finances claims massive cheating on taxes. I suspect this country won't be much different.

      1. Crawdad   15 years ago

        Even assuming tax hikes would help, why would anyone with a modicum of intelligence believe that government spending, which is the real problem, will be cut in any significant way (by either party)?

    2. nmg   15 years ago

      I don't understand what's so bad about the government going broke. Please explain.

  17. John Tagliaferro   15 years ago

    Radley,

    Where is the dead dog? Did Obama run one over?

  18. Invisible Finger   15 years ago

    He makes lying sound so reasonable, doesn't he?

    It's because he's so intelligent. His IQ is about 700.

    1. gas   15 years ago

      Yes, he has an extremely high IQ, for a retard.

  19. Michael   15 years ago

    The lying doesn't bother me so much. That was to be expected. It's this "make sure that all ideas are on the table" nonsense that gets my goat. Where the fuck are his ideas? I thought that was a big part of why people elected him - because he's all smart and shit.

    1. Al Sharpton   15 years ago

      We wanted blackness in the White House. Period. The illusion of "smart and shit" was just me and Jesse Jackson operating the teleprompters.

      1. The Department of Defense   15 years ago

        Blackness? teleprompters?

        We thought you said "helicopters."

        You can have that budget back.

  20. DWCarkuff   15 years ago

    Jeeze, how to deal with the massive budget deficit??? What an earth can we do? What possible option is there except to tax people more? What else is there??? I can't think of single thing!

  21. Oosik   15 years ago

    Lazarus Long's take on politicians and promises:

    Reform politicians not only tend to be dishonest but stupidly dishonest?whereas the business politician is honest? I don't mean that a business politician won't steal; stealing is his business. But all politicians are non-productive. The only commodity any politician has to offer is his jawbone. His personal integrity?meaning, if he gives his word, can you rely on it? A successful business politician knows his and guards his reputation for sticking by his commitments?because he wants to stay in business?go on stealing, that is?not only this week but next year and years after that. So if he's smart enough to be successful at this very exacting trade, he can have the morals of a snapping turtle, but he performs in such a way as not to jeopardize the only thing he has to sell, his reputation for keeping promises.

    But a reform politician has no such lodestone. His devotion is to the welfare of all the people?an abstraction of very high order and therefore capable of endless definitions. If indeed it can be defined in meaningful terms. In consequence your utterly sincere and incorruptible reform politician is capable of breaking his word three times before breakfast?and not from personal dishonesty, as he sincerely regrets the necessity and will tell you so?but from unswerving devotion to his ideal.

    All it takes to get him to break his word is for someone to get is ear and convince him that it is necessary for the greater good of all the peepul. He'll geek.

    After that he gets hardened to this, he's capable of cheating at solitaire. Fortunately he rarely stays in office long?except during the decay and fall of a culture.

    Robert A Heinlein, Time Enough for Love, p110, Ace/ G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1973

    1. Anderw Lynch   15 years ago

      Awesome.

  22. Chad   15 years ago

    A liar is anyone who thinks we can balance the budget without serious tax increases. A VAT and carbon tax (or auctioned C&T) are the best bets.

    Quit being a baby and get over it.

    1. Chad   15 years ago

      It's time for you retards to pay your fair share. We need tax rates similar to what England had in the 1960s. Time to sell your SUVs & McMansions for bicycles & city apartments.

      Quit being a baby and get over it.

      1. England   15 years ago

        If we had the land and GDP, we'd want McMansions too.

        Lighten up.

    2. John Thacker   15 years ago

      A liar is anyone who thinks we can balance the budget without serious tax increases.

      A liar is anyone who thinks we can balance the budget without serious spending cuts.

      What's that you say? Serious spending cuts are politically impossible? Well, so are serious tax increases.

    3. MJ   15 years ago

      So, while he was campaigning in '08, Obama was lying?

      While we still have the accelerator on the levels of government spending, along with an economy on the skids, we will not be able to tax our way to balanced budget. Anyone who says so is lying, or grossly ignorant. Take you pick.

  23. Pro Libertate   15 years ago

    Yeah, 'cause the bottomless pit must be fed, right?

    Boy, I can just hear all those Democratic faithful telling me how the Democrats were all about fiscal responsibility, balanced budgets, etc. Thought that was crap then, and, of course, they say no such thing now.

  24. Ray Butlers   15 years ago

    Pro Liberate: Seriously. You really think the Republicans were better?

    1. Tulpa   15 years ago

      I think divided government was better.

  25. Tulpa   15 years ago

    Obama. Taxes. Lies.

    When I first read this title, I thought Obama was proposing a tax on dishonesty.

  26. Max   15 years ago

    We went through the same thing with Clinton, except Clinton promised a middle class tax cut rather than just keeping taxes steady.

    Also, I've noticed that "moderate" Republicans like Greenspan are lining up behind a VAT. Republicans like the VAT because it doesn't bother rich people and Democracts like the VAT because they like all taxes.

  27. anonymous   15 years ago

    Well, none of you is a family -- you're all individuals. So how was he lying?

  28. Bill Clinton   15 years ago

    he's stealing all my moves.

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