Obama Lies
Exposing The Lies of those Around President Barack Obama
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By CALVIN WOODWARD
Associated Press Writer
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.”
He repeatedly vowed “you will not see any of your taxes increase one single dime.”
Now in office, Obama, who stopped smoking but has admitted he slips now and then, signed a law raising the tobacco tax nearly 62 cents on a pack of cigarettes, to $1.01. Other tobacco products saw similarly steep increases.
The extra money will be used to finance a major expansion of health insurance for children. That represents a step toward achieving another promise, to make sure all kids are covered.
Obama said in the campaign that Americans could have both—a broad boost in affordable health insurance for the nation without raising taxes on anyone but the rich.
His detailed campaign plan stated that his proposed improvement in health insurance and health technology “is more than covered” by raising taxes on the wealthy alone. It was not based on raising the tobacco tax.
The White House contends Obama’s campaign pledge left room for measures such as the one financing children’s health insurance.
“The president’s position throughout the campaign was that he would not raise income or payroll taxes on families making less than $250,000, and that’s a promise he has kept,” said White House spokesman Reid H. Cherlin. “In this case, he supported a public health measure that will extend health coverage to 4 million children who are currently uninsured.”
In some instances during the campaign, Obama was plainly talking about income, payroll and investment taxes, even if he did not say so.
Other times, his point appeared to be that heavier taxation of any sort on average Americans is the wrong prescription in tough times.
“Listen now,” he said in his widely watched nomination acceptance speech, “I will cut taxes—cut taxes—for 95 percent of all working families, because, in an economy like this, the last thing we should do is raise taxes on the middle class.”
An unequivocal “any tax” pledge also was heard in the vice presidential debate, another prominent forum.
“No one making less than $250,000 under Barack Obama’s plan will see one single penny of their tax raised,” Joe Biden said, “whether it’s their capital gains tax, their income tax, investment tax, any tax.”
The Democratic campaign used such statements to counter Republican assertions that Obama would raise taxes in a multitude of direct and indirect ways, recalled Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania.
“I think a reasonable person would have concluded that Senator Obama had made a ‘no new taxes’ pledge to every couple or family making less than $250,000,” she said.
Jamieson noted GOP ads that claimed Obama would raise taxes on electricity and home heating oil. “They rebutted both with the $250,000 claim,” she said of the Obama campaign, “so they did extend the rebuttal beyond income and payroll.”
Government and private research has found that smoking rates are higher among people of low income.
A Gallup survey of 75,000 people last year fleshed out that conclusion. It found that 34 percent of respondents earning $6,000 to $12,000 were smokers, and the smoking rate consistently declined among people of higher income. Only 13 percent of people earning $90,000 or more were smokers.
Federal or state governments often turn for extra tax dollars to the one in five Americans who smoke, and many states already hit tobacco users this year. So did the tobacco companies, which raised the price on many brands by more than 70 cents a pack.
The latest increase in the federal tax is by far the largest since its introduction in 1951, when it was 8 cents a pack. It’s gone up six times since, each time by no more than a dime, until now.
Apart from the tax haul, public health advocates argue that squeezing smokers will help some to quit and persuade young people not to start.
But it was a debate the country didn’t have in a presidential campaign that swore off higher taxation.
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On the Net:
Gallup study: http://tinyurl.com/9u9mbf
This entry was posted on Thursday, April 2nd, 2009 at 11:27 am and is filed under Barack Obama. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
11 Responses to “Obama’s Deception Continues”
blackpride on April 15th, 2009 at 8:31 am
Maybe not everything turned out the way he wanted but at least the president is trying to keep his promises. He is better than all the alternatives, for sure.
admin on April 15th, 2009 at 5:35 pm
“Better than the Alternatives?” I don’t think so. Since being in office he’s shown utter disregard for Conservative issues, instead pushing his extremely liberal agenda at all costs. Which is fine if you like that stuff, but rather offensive to others.
Chris@medical billing on April 16th, 2009 at 6:57 pm
Do you feel that the other alternatives would’ve done better or known how to do it better?
admin on April 17th, 2009 at 11:01 am
Obama likes to think he appeals to everyone. But there is a disconnect between what he says, and what he does. He has taken an extremely liberal stance on issues.
I think the alternatives would have been more middle of the road and appealed to both parties better. Not taken extremist stances on things.
Take public healthcare. In a down economy a better stance would be to focus on things that make money and less on things that don’t make money.
Healthcare will not make the government money, it will be a drain. Why? because its something lots of people want, but nobody wants to pay for.
All Obama’s Socialist Ideas are things that people want for free, things they feel entitled too. Things that take away from growth, and encourage laziness. Take away people’s motivation to work, and what do you get?
A bunch of selfish, lazy, people, that expect the world, but deserve nothing.
Tim on April 22nd, 2009 at 2:57 pm
Oh no! You really have to stretch to find a lie these days . . . an increase in the federal tax on tobacco affects 45 million adult smokers.
Torturing prisoners, and then using those “confessions” to justify a war with dubious claims of “imminent threat”, now that was a lie we can sink our teeth into, that was a lie that had worldwide negative implications. That was a lie with substance.
This, the tobacco tax, affects about 12% of the U.S. population.
The war in Iraq affects 100% of the U.S. population.
Calling President Obama a “liar” for the tobacco tax is like using a chainsaw to peel a grape.
Tim on April 22nd, 2009 at 5:02 pm
Let’s look at the “alternative” and the tax on cigarrettes:
Cigarette taxes per pack
State State tax Federal Tax Combined
Alaska $2.000 $1.0066 $3.01
Arizona $2.000 $1.0066 $3.01
Sarah Palin governs a state with twice the tax on cigarettes than the feds have levied.
John McCain is a Senator from a state with the same tax rate.
The lowest state tax rate is South Carolina at 7 cents
admin on April 23rd, 2009 at 9:21 am
Tim, Your so funny I see you fall for the same crap every other liberal does. Obama lies, and your only defense is to blame bush. Bush, Bush, Bush, that gets really old fast. Bush will pay for his sins. This site is about Obama and his lies.
Obama’s lies will cost us more than Iraq. Freedom is happening in Iraq. It is good to have Saddam gone. It is good to see the improvements that are happening in Iraq and the lives of the Iraqi people. It is bad to see Obama take away our rights, expand government, and drive us down the path of poverty.
So from what I see, Iraq Good, Obama Bad.
admin on April 23rd, 2009 at 9:27 am
The argument isn’t on what the taxes already are, or what states already have high taxes on cigarettes; who cares. That isn’t the issue.
The argument is that Obama said he wouldn’t raise taxes on low and middle income earners at all.
The problem is, by Obama allowing a tax increase on cigarettes he has lied. Why? Because the cigarette tax disproportionately affects lower income earners. The group he said he wouldn’t increase taxes on.
Quit diverting the issue! You can say, well it’s only a small increase. None the less it is an increase, and a lie.
Terry@ Scrub Tops on April 28th, 2009 at 10:47 pm
Discussions here never get boring huh? LOL
But here’s my two cents here. I’m not going into the liar part but smoking is not a necessity. While low-income people like me do love to smoke (sorry for the generalization), we can always quit if we really want to. That way, we won’t be affected by the increased tax on tobacco products.
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Aroq Stobbs on August 13th, 2009 at 4:56 pm
The people who voted for Obama are now defending his honor blindly because love is blind. obama is like their lover and they can’t face the fact that he has lied to them hundreds of times so far on national television. if they face that, they will have to face the fact that they are all STUPID to believe a pathelogical liar. a pathelogical liar even begins to believe his own lies, and that’s where barak is right now. that’s why it’s challenging to an average joe schmo to see through his bullshit. he is might convincing when he lies because he doesn’t even know he’s lying! but I know
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