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Politifact named Mitt Romney’s campaign ad about Jeeps being made in China their lie of the year. Given how provably false Romney’s ad was that is a decent choice, but in the grand scheme it seems President Obama’s promise not the raise taxes on anyone making less than $250,000 is far more deserving of that title. While Romney’s lie was a one off distortion, Obama’s soon-to-be-broken promise was the heart of his entire campaign.
For five years Obama repeatedly and unequivocal promised not the raise taxes by one penny on anyone making less than $250,000. He did so in ads, campaign stops, emails, and interviews. There is probably no other single policy proposal that was more central to both of Obama’s presidential campaigns. Millions likely voted for Obama based on this firm promise.
Yet even before Obama’s second term begins, he has rushed to break this campaign promise. Obama has pushed for a deficit deal that includes a switch to chained-CPI. Switching to a lower inflation measure would not only cut Social Security benefits, it would end up being a significant tax increase on the middle class by causing tax brackets to raise more slowly. While the tax increase would be very small at first, over the next decade it would mean the middle class will pay ten of billions more in taxes.
Obama was not forced by some extraordinary unforeseen event to accept this tax increase. Obama include this middle class tax increase in his counter offer. Obama didn’t need to do this, he chose to do it.
Right after Obama was re-elected, based on a promise not to raise taxes on the middle class, his first major action was to push for a middle class tax increase. This is a pathological level of dishonesty. The only thing more disturbing is the weak shoulder-shrugging response by most of the media to such a profound act of deception.
If the top elected official in America working to break his biggest campaign promise right after the election ends is not treated as a real scandal, we might as well put up a giant billboards all over Washington saying “politicians will never be held accountable.”
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The cynical side of you has taken over Jon and it is reality based. Obama will accomplish the tasks he is being paid to accomplish and wealth will continue to concentrate at the top. That third world America that Huffpo has been highlighting will be reality. FDL and the intertoobz are the only free press but accountability is a long way off. Voting for Real Progressives every chance we get is our only peaceful hope for change
Thanks for the post. No offense intended, but if Obomba’s mouth is open & sound is coming out of it: it’s a LIE.
That’s all Obomba does (same with 99.99999999% of all politicians, of course, and here I’m being exceedingly & extremely generous) is LIE, LIE, and then again LIE some more.
But I figured that out a looong time ago. Sadly too many citizens have not accepted reality for what it is. Obomba means no “good” towards the middle & working classes. Never has; never will. The end.
Who is held accountable these days (other than the “little people’).
Accountability? How quaint!
Nice bait & switch story, Jon!
Obama IS protecting income taxes on middle class earners (was $250k, now $400k).
Your premise that chained CPI will lead to higher taxes is intriguing, but deceiving.
Payroll taxes will increase EITHER WAY, with or without a change in CPI adjustments.
He hasn’t broken it until it’s a done deal. And a broken promise is different than a outright lie of fact.
This is one reason I’m waiting until January to pass judgement on what the Congress and President are likely to do.
There is too much kabuki and maneuvering going on for the public to tell, and public input is minimally significant to the current bunch in Congress anyway.
Not all his fault, we knew he was a dishonest and wicked man and yet many of us voted for him because he was a better option than Romney. We cldve stayed home and allowed him to lose but we came out in record numbers to support a politician who clearly told us he was after ssi and medicare. If Romney had won at least we wld have been able to push the democrats in congress to fight with us, they are not going to fight against Obama. In the words of Glenn Ford “Obama is not the lesser evil he is the more effective evil”. Without having to worry about reelection Obama is going to be a progressive nightmare, however, progressives did vote for him so they are partially to blame as well.
I don’t know of a single economist who doesn’t agree that changing the CPI will result in the middle class paying more in taxes.
” This is a pathological level of dishonesty. “
Actions speak louder than words and this is totally in concert with Obama’s previous behavior. This is who he is, what he does and what he has been doing. There is no mystery here.
The real mystery is why anyone would expect anything different from the man. Obama has demonstrated time and again that he has no values or principles and that there will never be a line in the sand that he will not cross.
I would like to get something in return for my taxes aside from Drones, punishment for smoking pot, and Bradley Manning. Everything else is a complete mess.
It is clear that you don’t understand how the change to “chained CPI” will effect people drawing SS. Again, if anybody that voted for Obummer thought the safety net – ie medicare, medicade, and SS – would be protected – you were not listening the past 4 years! I am so glad I voted for Jill Stien. I hope all that voted for the big O are happy now – lets see how happy you are when you lose most of the benefits, SS and Medicare, that you have been paying into, in my case for 45 years. AGAIN, THESE ARE NOT ENTITLEMENTS – - THESE ARE BENEFITS THAT WE HAVE BEEN PAYING FOR ALL ALONG!!
99 percent of Americans hoodwinked and bamboozled again.
Obama’s “character” is to compromise. He does not have the balls to make demands or a core set of moral values which demand his allegiance. His capitulation is not a surprise, it has been his pattern. Progressives want to believe, so many supported him out of desperate hope. He will claim that the compromise is a victory, as he did with every other compromise. He believes it. He will not make the Rethugs stand up and be shamed for anything. It would spoil his future compromises. The Rethugs will ask for more than they want, and they will get more than they expected. They play Obama like a fiddle, and he dances to their tune. Sad. I voted for Jill Stein. We will see this same kind of capitulation when the debt ceiling arrives and on Supreme Court nominees and on the Palestinian issue and on and on and on…..
Marcel, what on earth does extending the Bushbama tax cuts up to 400 grand have to do with the middle class? People earning 250k aren’t middle class, and people earning 400 grand are most definitely not middle class. At 250k/year, an earner is solidly in the top 5 percent. That’s the 95th percentile of income. At 400k they are solidly in the top 2 percent, or the 98th percentile of income. Draw yourself a chart. If you can find some way to make the 95th-98th percentiles fit in the middle, you’re on the way to some sort of new math and a Nobel Prize.
Regardless of any of that, you have completely missed the point. The chained CPI will result in lower benefits while the taxes paid for those benefits remain the same. That is in effect a tax increase, same as when the orange juice you used to get in a half gallon container for three bucks shrunk to 56 ounces but remained at three bucks is a price increase.
Forget the benefits stuff too if you want. Try following links:
Get that? By going to chained CPI, your standard deduction is reduced. And the allowable tax free contributions to your retirement accounts are reduced. These things result in higher taxes, and they result in those higher taxes for the first dollar of taxable income. In other words…a tax increase on the working and middle classes.
Biggest lie ever.
The average reduction in SS increases will be about $4/month.
The average tax increase for working Americans will be about $10/year.
Cumulative!
We DID get “change”. The “hope” not so much.
This is what happens when you base your vote on fear. We knew Obama’s record as President. There was no reason in hell to think he would do differently the second time around. I voted 3rd party. I just wished the millions who had held their noses and voted for this liar had done the same.
From the article cited in the post:
The treachery of it all!
Obama has done everything he could to assist the Republicans and Wall Street in order to be one of the elite. When the second term is over, they will toss him. He will never ever be a member of their “club.”
But it’s the lessor of two evils right? Come on tell me how much more evil Romney would have been.
I am waiting as well for the final deal and time will tell.
For me Obama offered SS and therein lies the problem.
agreed – well stated!!
Considering the record of the last 4 years, with HSBC as the crowning achievement, why are we even using words like accountability? We have entered a mirror universe. The greater the magnitude of your bad acts, the lower the likelihood of being held accountable for them.
If you enable murder, corruption, and terrorism on a global scale you get a speeding ticket that your shareholders get to pay. If you establish a global spying and torture regime, you get immunity and eventually TV shows and movies to sing your praises.
Get caught with a dime-bag, you forfeit your freedom, and lose your voting rights, employment prospects and social services. Forever. Get a loan from a casino masquerading as a bank, and your own taxes pay for the bail-out that enables them to take everything you have left.
Whatever Obama does or doesn’t do for the poor and middle class this term, his headlong campaign to destroy the rule of law for short-term political advantage will be his true legacy.
Even more than the grotesque economic inequality, the failure of the rule of law will eventually undo whatever social cohesion exists. At which point democracy itself and law and order will seem just as “quaint” as the Geneva Convention.
You skipped my points: Obama is protecting those making under $250k (or $400k) / year and payroll taxes will increase regardless.
You pretzel logic is equivalent to the Right Wingers saying Obama raised taxes in his 1st term by taxing choices like tanning beds.
I just recieved a call asking for donations to Al Franken’s campaign – I asked what the senator’s position was on the chained CPI postion of the pres. I got a short little chuckle from the caller and he did not answer my question. Again, the dems are no different than the repbs. They all serve the corp. masters.
Right you are. And, I don’t suppose the historians will view him positively.
For me: Gitmo, NDAA, no bankster prosecution, extrajudicial drone executions, and his constant capitulation to the dastardly, despicable republican party, BOehner and McConnel in particular, will make him my least favorite vote (2008) ever. I did not vote for him last time.
you just don’t get it do you. Obummer PROMISED in his campaign that the threshold was 250K – what part of liar do you not understand? Obummer is no different than any other Republican.
I agree mostly. It’s just a shame when you have to pick from the lessor of two evils. BUt, when you have (really) just one party and only two candidates……well…….I suppose we’ll just have to wait another four years and just HOPE that a candidate genuinely sympathetic to the 99% and not beholden to the 1% will arrive on the scene.
well stated – not sure us in the 99% can withstand another 4 years – glad I voted third party!!
And yet all those things were wanted by the PTB and the MIC and approved by the MOTU and unless we do something big the history books will be written by them….
From The Times
After three days of turbulent meetings, the Texas Board of Education on Friday approved a social studies curriculum that will put a conservative stamp on history and economics textbooks, stressing the superiority of American capitalism, questioning the Founding Fathers’ commitment to a purely secular government and presenting Republican political philosophies in a more positive light.
I’d be willing to contribute to that billboard – but only if it included “except to Wall Street and the 1%”
Thank you. As the “comedy relief” here, I don’t usually get to show how intelligent and philosophical I can be. Nor how modest.
If we wait and hope, we are doomed. If we rise up and demand an end to the electoral colelge and to a two party system, we might begin to get traction for change.
I agree with THD. I’m going to wait until this is a done deal. There will be some “negotiations” on going and some in the press. But since it appears no one really cares much what I (we) have to say, I’m going to sit on the sidelines.
I voted third party as well but never even saw any third party results for my state. Did you?
As correct as you always are, please don’t take anything the Texas BofE ever does as indicatiove of anything. They aren’t. They are servants to our nitwit, idiot governor and controlled by the right wing Baptists who are very strong in this state.
OTOH, the signifi8cant inmcrease in the number of Asians and Hispanics in the state, is threatening their stranglehold on state politics. 20 more years and we will no longer be the nation’s Mississippi. Mississippi will be.
Mississippi will secede before 20 years don’t ya think? :)
Slightly OT – every time yesterday and today that I called the White House regarding this issue and these austerity measures in general, the line (both lines) is busy. Anyone getting through?
The way we’re going in my state, WE will be Michissippi…
you dont know what the hell you are talking about.
please leave the field.
adults are playing.
lol..you people are amazing.
dont you realize the deal was done and complete the day that boner asked everyone leave the room but he and the president???
I once knew a man who moved from Texas to Mississippi. He raised the average IQ of both states simultaneously.
Sorry to tell you that president Obama will cut Medicare and SS one way or another.
Again indeed, lame duck with carte blanche, enjoy now.
yes he will – - by the way, don’t forget that local police forces are buying and using drones – another issue that Obummer is responsible for. Might as well use the constitution for TP under this pres.
I’m not amazed, this is not new, everyone in this FDL knew that president Obama was a pathological liar,so what is this whining all about?
EX: remember Public Option,lied trough his teeth in national tv.
etc,etc.
Indeed, but people don’t understand that.
DEM=REP=MONEY=BIG CORPORATIONS=NO REGARDS FOR OTHERS.
“CHAINED CPI” means that i will always buy the cheaper,disgusting,non quality,tainted product anywhere, because inflation won’t be considered,therefore SS won’t increase according with inflation, so someone is pocketing the difference,also meaning that in fact SS is being cut with a dirty tricky scheme.
Let alone that earners 30 thou to 40 thou will see an increasing in theirs tax brackets about .3 percent,je,je,je ,what a crooking thing to do.
Not to mention an automatic 2 % payroll increment january/2013, also adding
Obamalosicare taxes and penalties beggining 2013 etc,etc.
…excellent comment MS … X 2
agree..X3
It’s hard when there is only one party and people vote against something instead of for something.
No, but I did find it here: http://www.greenpartywatch.org/2012/11/07/jill-stein-election-results/
Obama must be one of the most deceitful and overrated Presidents ever. He’s strictly a MSM creation. And by the way this talk about gun control is more bullsh*t to distract the serfs as he cuts their Social Security and Medicare.
Curious, isn’t it, that FDL didn’t find this issue worth exploring BEFORE the election?
Oh yeah, I forgot, the election was a non-issue for FDL.