President Obama has already broken his pledge to not raise any taxes on Americans making less than $250,000 a year, the Associated Press notes today. The tax increase on cigarettes that pays for the expansion of S-CHIP will affect the working class more than anyone else.
One of President Barack Obama’s campaign pledges on taxes went up in puffs of smoke Wednesday.
The largest increase in tobacco taxes took effect despite Obama’s promise not to raise taxes of any kind on families earning under $250,000 or individuals under $200,000.
This is one tax that disproportionately affects the poor, who are more likely to smoke than the rich.
To be sure, Obama’s tax promises in last year’s campaign were most often made in the context of income taxes. Not always.
“I can make a firm pledge,” he said in Dover, N.H., on Sept. 12. “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.”
And here we are with people making less than $250,000/year receiving a tax increase on items they purchase. Gee, who could’ve possibly predicted that Obama’s pledges on taxes were complete and utter bullshiat? Oh, right, just about everyone who didn’t have his or her cranium shoved up Obama’s posterior.
As Ed Morrissey says, wait until Obama gets his cap-and-trade system passed. The additional “fees” charged to energy producers will be duly passed on to the consumers, which means lower and middle-income families will be impacted the most. As even more of their disposable income is gobbled up by the bullcrap system, we’ll have more stories about how Obama has broken more tax pledges from the campaign. And 48% of the nation will be left standing there saying, “We told you so.” Predictable.
by Stephan Tawney on Wed, Apr 1, 2009