Today in Washington, D.C. - June 23, 2010 - Dems Poised To Break Obama's Promise On Middle Class Tax Hikes

The pending business in the Senate is the debt-extending “tax extenders bill,” the House message to accompany H.R. 4213. Democrats are likely to offer a new substitute amendment to the bill today, but it remains to be seen if they can get 60 votes to move forward. Two previous attempts have failed.

Today, the House Rules Committee is expected to send the so-called DISCLOSE Act to the floor of the House for an expected vote tomorrow. House Democrats have done nothing to remove controversial campaign speech restrictions against corporations and not-for-profit organizations to endorse candidates without regulation.

Bill Wilson, Americans for Limited Government has responded that: "The First Amendment is supposed to extend to all individuals and groups of individuals, but instead Congress continues with its curious interpretation of freedom of speech and of the press where certain, politically-favored groups, including media, are completely protected from regulation, and others are not. . . . The Constitution only provides for one, consistent application of the First Amendment, that Congress shall make no law abridging speech under any circumstances. Yet Congress persists in attempting to do just that, and uses exemptions to their unconstitutional regulations to buy off support, whether from media or certain non-profit organizations."

A week in Washington these days isn’t really complete without a news story exposing another broken promise from Democrats. The twist this week is that it isn’t about the health care bill, but it is about one of President Obama’s key promises: that he wouldn’t raise taxes on the middle class. During his campaign Obama pledged, “If you make under $250,000, you will not see your taxes increased by a single dime. Not your income tax. Not your payroll tax. Not your capital gains tax. No tax.” Asked about this promise last summer, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said, “The president was clear during the campaign about his commitment on not raising taxes on middle-class families. . . . I don’t think any economist would believe that, in the environment that we're in, that raising taxes on middle-class families would make any sense.”

The White House might want to spend a little more time talking to Democrats in Congress, since The Hill reports that Democrats in both chambers are looking at raising taxes, violating Obama’s promise. In the Senate, “Democrats are looking at the possibility of raising taxes on families below the $250,000-a-year threshold promised by President Barack Obama during the election. The majority party on Capitol Hill does not feel bound by that pledge, saying the threshold for tax hikes will depend on several factors, such as the revenue differences between setting the threshold at $200,000 and setting it at $250,000.” Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) added, “You could go lower, too — why not $200,000? . . . With the debt and deficit we have, you can’t make promises to people. This is a very serious situation.”

In the House, The Hill reported, “In a speech before the progressive think tank The Third Way, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) on Tuesday left the door open to reigning in middle class tax cuts enacted under President George W. Bush.” Hoyer said, “[A]s the House and Senate debate what to do with the expiring Bush tax cuts in the coming weeks, we need to have a serious discussion about their implications for our fiscal outlook, including whether we can afford to permanently extend them before we have a real plan for long-term deficit reduction.”

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell wasn’t enamored of this line of thinking yesterday when he spoke on the Senate floor. “The House Majority Leader in a speech today warns that in order to do anything about the debt crisis Republicans have been speaking about on the Senate floor in recent weeks, President Obama will have no choice but to break his campaign pledge of no new taxes for millions of American families.” Instead, McConnell offered, “Here’s another idea Democrats should consider, one that Americans have been proposing loudly and clearly: stop spending money you don’t have.”

Rather than raising taxes on middle class Americans in the midst of a severe recession and 9.7% unemployment, Democrats might want to consider spending less. Americans aren’t crying out to Congress that the government taxes to little, but that it spends too much. Democrats have shown that Americans can’t trust them to keep their promises, and raising taxes is just the latest example. The American people deserve better from their government.

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