If Elected, I'll Prefer Not to Raise Taxes

Last month I noted that President Obama seemed to be setting up his National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform as an excuse to break his promise not to raise taxes on households earning less than $250,000 a year. (The powerless, purely advisory commission made me do it!) A few days later, Peter Suderman pointed out that Obama's budget director, Peter Orszag, declined to reiterate Obama's promise, saying the president wants the commission to consider all possible solutions to the nation's dire long-term fiscal situation. Yesterday, Lloyd Grove reports at The Daily Beast, Orszag went a little further, describing Obama's "firm pledge" as a mere "preference."

Obama, of course, already has broken his tax pledge. Repeatedly. But he insisted those taxes weren't really taxes. Now he seems ready to argue that his pledge was not really a pledge.