Obama’s “Read my lips” moment

As I have heard conservative pundits over the past several weeks insisting that a VAT tax was all but a sure thing in the very near future, I generally tossed it off as an effort to simply rile up their base. Then I see this headline yesterday:

"Obama suggests value-added tax may be an option"

Oops.

Those of us who follow politics closely can't help but recall then-candidate Obama's oft repeated promise to not raise any taxes on those making under $250,000. A VAT tax – which is assessed on goods at each step of the way as they move through the production and distribution system to the retailer – would ultimately raise the price of goods to consumers as the tax is built into the price. Surely, if enacted, this would qualify as a serious and material broken campaign promise then, right?

But then I see this comment by the president from his weekly radio address on April 10th:

"And one thing we have not done is raise income taxes on families making less than $250,000. That's another promise we've kept." [Italics mine]

It is clear what is happening here. The federal government has once again passed a massive entitlement program which we cannot afford, but was sold to the public as a fully funded deficit reduction package. Most people believe that in reality additional funding sources are going to be needed in the form of increased taxation. So the President is slowly and retroactively modifying his prior campaign promise in order to open the door to a potential VAT tax.

This largely helps explain why a recent Rasmussen Poll found that only 8% of Americans expect a tax cut under President Obama, even though the President campaigned on a promise to cut taxes for 95% of Americans.

The President also recently said that we need to determine "the core services that we need and the government should provide. And then we decide how do we pay for that." I couldn't agree more. I'll refer the President to Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution which spells out clearly the seventeen enumerated powers of Congress, and Article II, Section 2 which spells out the powers of the Executive Branch. This – and only this – is what the Federal government has the power to do. The Tenth Amendment leaves all other powers to the state governments and to the people.

I'm no fool. I realize pretty much all politicians lie and break promises. But that doesn't mean we don't call them out on it when it happens - or when we suspect they might be laying the groundwork to make it happen, as in this case. And it also justifies many Americans' rational suspicion towards the massive "reform" packages politicians of all stripes have been trying to sell to the American people lately. Most of the time the bill-of-goods being sold is not quite exactly what it is purported to be.

Will this be President Obama's "read my lips" moment? Will he really push for a tax that the Senate just voted 85-13 to declare it as a "massive tax increase that will cripple families on fixed income"? Or will he live up to his campaign pledge to not harm the middle class with any tax increases?

One can hope. Unfortunately it was also "Hope" that got us to this point in the first place.