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Obama promised during the campaign of 2008 that people earning less than $250K will see NO tax increase under his plan.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HE-rGGKksQ

He signed a bill in February 2009 which violated this promise.

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."

I guess not any meant not any but tobacco.

Richard if you're looking for a tax free paradise might I recommend Somalia. Enjoy its shrapnel covered beaches. The law free black market where everything from iPads to human slaves is a capitalist paradise. Please go soon!

I knew that $250,000 or more tax was a lie as soon as I heard Obama state it in his campaign speech. Unfortunately what works to win votes doesn't have to add up to balance a budget.

Maybe what we need to do is send Obama to Somalia.

Good grief, you are really grasping at straws.

He specifically said "under my plan." Has any part of Obama's tax "plan" that included increased taxes for those over $250K ever been implemented?

Besides, a sales tax on an entertainment product is not a tax on any specific income group. It's a completely voluntary tax, unrelated to income in any way. Neither the store nor the government has any idea how much money you earn when you choose to buy the product and pay the tax.

This claim is nonsense.

ajax18 wrote:I knew that $250,000 or more tax was a lie as soon as I heard Obama state it in his campaign speech. Unfortunately what works to win votes doesn't have to add up to balance a budget.

Maybe what we need to do is send Obama to Somalia.

Ajax a meager tax increase should have happened back when Iraq and Afghanistan started. Instead of a surtax so that all of America would share the cost of the wars we had a tax cut for the rich, exacerbating our current debt problem. Taxes are going to be raised in conjunction with spending cuts. Get ready for it. People will not take the cuts to Medicare or Medicaid when the rich continue to get tax cuts and the defense budget continues to bloat.

Even so, if Obama's policies are so good for a country, why not send him to Somalia and see how they work there. Do you really think any kind of policy is going to work in Somalia?

ajax18 wrote:Even so, if Obama's policies are so good for a country, why not send him to Somalia and see how they work there. Do you really think any kind of policy is going to work in Somalia?

Not so long as there isn't a stable government and ethnic cleansing is going on. American policy works with the apparatus of America, where we have an extremely stable system of government with smooth power transitions as well as long standing institutions and legal codes which, while they may not be liked, are usually recognized as authoritative. We also have a mature and relatively stable economy, taking a global perspective. In Somalia the guy with the AK-47 is the law. Totally different.

Bond James Bond wrote:
Ajax a meager tax increase should have happened back when Iraq and Afghanistan started. Instead of a surtax so that all of America would share the cost of the wars we had a tax cut for the rich, exacerbating our current debt problem. Taxes are going to be raised in conjunction with spending cuts. Get ready for it. People will not take the cuts to Medicare or Medicaid when the rich continue to get tax cuts and the defense budget continues to bloat.

Correction please. We had a tax cut for EVERYONE!. I get so tired of this false claim, that the Bush tax cuts were just for the rich. It simply is not true.

The Bush tax cuts were across the board. Every tax bracket benefited and many lower income earner totally dropped off the income tax rolls. Totally dropped off. The Bush tax cuts also increased the child credits and college credits for the lower income to middle class taxpayers but not for higher income earners.

Now if you want to argue that someone earning $500k a year who saw his tax rate go down by 5% points got more dollars in his pocket than a person earning $75k year who also got a 5% point reduction then you will be accurate. But both saw their rates drop by 5%. Also if you want to argue that the drop in capital gains rates from 20% to 15% benefited higher income earners more you would be correct. Same for the drop from the ordinary tax rate being imposed in dividends dropping to 15% max.

But it the Bush tax cuts did reduce rates for all Americans.

Also I agree we should have had a war tax on to fund the two wars Bush got us in.

Jason Bourne wrote:

Bond James Bond wrote:
Ajax a meager tax increase should have happened back when Iraq and Afghanistan started. Instead of a surtax so that all of America would share the cost of the wars we had a tax cut for the rich, exacerbating our current debt problem. Taxes are going to be raised in conjunction with spending cuts. Get ready for it. People will not take the cuts to Medicare or Medicaid when the rich continue to get tax cuts and the defense budget continues to bloat.

Correction please. We had a tax cut for EVERYONE!. I get so tired of this false claim, that the Bush tax cuts were just for the rich. It simply is not true.

The Bush tax cuts were across the board. Every tax bracket benefited and many lower income earner totally dropped off the income tax rolls. Totally dropped off. The Bush tax cuts also increased the child credits and college credits for the lower income to middle class taxpayers but not for higher income earners.

Now if you want to argue that someone earning $500k a year who saw his tax rate go down by 5% points got more dollars in his pocket than a person earning $75k year who also got a 5% point reduction then you will be accurate. But both saw their rates drop by 5%. Also if you want to argue that the drop in capital gains rates from 20% to 15% benefited higher income earners more you would be correct. Same for the drop from the ordinary tax rate being imposed in dividends dropping to 15% max.

But it the Bush tax cuts did reduce rates for all Americans.

Also I agree we should have had a war tax on to fund the two wars Bush got us in.

So let it be known and written that you were totally correct and we all got tax cuts. But my basic point was the rich got the best of it.

Jason Bourne wrote:Correction please. We had a tax cut for EVERYONE!. I get so tired of this false claim, that the Bush tax cuts were just for the rich. It simply is not true.

Technically, for the claim to be untrue, it would have to say that the cuts were only for the rich. The fact is that the highest earners reaped the greatest benefits, and the reason is, as you yourself mentioned, because of the capital gains and dividend cuts. That's why Romney and Buffett pay such a low percentage.

I do not agree with Obama when he talks about raising rates only for the rich. It's not enough. Letting all of the cuts expire (as they were supposed to) would be the best thing that could happen for the economy and budget deficits.