Obama's promise from last fall to cut taxes

The entire speech is available here.

My plan - all together - is a net tax cut. My plan will cut taxes to a smaller share of the economy than they were under President Reagan. Under my plan, income taxes for typical American families will be the lowest that they've been in more than a half century. Everyone in America - everyone - will pay lower taxes than they would under the rates Bill Clinton had in the 1990s. And under my plan, middle class families will get three times as much relief as Senator McCain is offering. In fact, his plan gives absolutely nothing to over 100 million American households.

And I can make a firm pledge: under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 will see their taxes increase - not your income taxes, not your payroll taxes, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes. My opponent can't make that pledge, and here's why: for the first time in American history, he wants to tax your health benefits Apparently, Senator McCain doesn't think it's enough that your health premiums have doubled, he thinks you should have to pay taxes on them too. That's a $3.6 trillion tax increase on middle class families. That will eventually leave tens of millions of you paying higher taxes. That's his idea of change. . . . .

Politico notes this today:

President Barack Obama blitzed the Sunday morning airwaves to pitch health reform but found himself on the defensive — denying the plan breaks his campaign promise not to raise taxes on the middle class and insisting the public insurance option isn’t dead. . . .

“For us to say that you've got to take a responsibility to get health insurance is absolutely not a tax increase,” Obama said on ABC’s “This Week.” “What it’s saying is that we’re not going to have other people carrying your burdens for you any more than the fact that right now everybody in America, just about, has to get auto insurance. Nobody considers that a tax increase.”

Critics of Obama’s proposals say that taxes and higher fees on insurance companies, drug makers and other industries would simply be passed on to consumers – also amounting to a hidden cost in the plan.

After he was pressed on it some more, in a testy exchange where Stephanopoulos at one point read the definition of “tax” from Merriam Webster's Dictionary, Obama held firm.

“My critics say everything is a tax increase. My critics say that I'm taking over every sector of the economy. You know that,” Obama said.

“But you reject that it's a tax increase?” the host said.

“I absolutely reject that notion,” Obama said. . . .

Here is the problem. This tax isn't just limited to those without health insurance. People making less than $250,000 will also pay this tax even if they have health insurance.

As an aside, I should also point to this related promise is available here.

When Bob Schieffer asked Obama what he was going to do about the deficit Obama promised to cut the it: “But there is no doubt that we've been living beyond our means and we're going to have to make some adjustments. Now, what I've done throughout this campaign is to propose a net spending cut.” . . .