I couldn't help but notice this little blurb, courtesy of MSNBC.com:
President Barack Obama's treasury secretary on Sunday said he cannot rule out higher taxes to help tame an exploding budget deficit and his chief economic adviser would not dismiss raising them on middle-class Americans as part of a health care overhaul.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/...
It is not my intention to inflame the red-hot passions of Kos readers and contributors by pointing out that raising the taxes of middle-class Americans to fund health care reform runs contradictory to daily campaign promises delivered by President Obama during the 2008 campaign. It is, however, my desire to remind the Obama White House that funding budget deficit reduction and health care initiatives by sapping the middle class of funds at a time of recession is not only unacceptable, but insulting to the millions of working-class citizens who believe in you and your message of change that so captivated our nation last year.
This will not be a winding, philosophical diary with witty quips and endless block quotes. This is not to tear down President Obama. This man is charged with putting out more foreign and domestic fires than any president in my lifetime, so I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt by stating that I believe he will not support any tax increases that inequitably damage the middle class while allowing the wealthy, who have enjoyed unprecedented privilege during the past eight years, to skirt their responsibility for funding the same government that was so kind to them when Bush ran the show.
However, should these comments represent the official policy of the White House and its plan to pull this country out of debt and fund health care reform, President Obama might consider how voters in swing states that supported him in 2008 – Including Indiana, Ohio, North Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Florida and Colorado - will react to having their taxes raised in lieu of hiking rates for the most privileged among us. What use is reform if its conduit is bankrupting those who believe in you the most?
I don't know about you, folks...but I'd sure like some explication from the Obama White House regarding who they plan to tax for deficit reduction and health care reform. Articles like this make a whole lot of people in my state very nervous.
Update
I couldn't help but notice that this story has spread like wildfire across the morning news stations - including MSNBC. I think it's time for the president to make his intentions clear and stop hedging on the issue.
I'm sorry, Obama to-the-death supporters: This is NOT the change we elected back in November. Punish the working class, and we will do the same to you at the ballot box during future elections.