Get Ready for the Tax Hikes

White House advisor John Podesta is also chief executive of the progressive Center for American Progress. The Wall Street Journal reports that group is calling for tax increases – on everybody. They say we aren’t going to be able to simply tax the rich to pay off the national debt.

Such ideas could pose problems for Mr. Obama, who pledged during the campaign to not increase taxes on families making less than $250,000. The report, which will be released on Wednesday, said the administration can’t rely on taxing richer Americans and companies to reduce the deficit to sustainable levels by 2014 because those groups would see 40% tax increases.

“In all seriousness, responsible people know that additional revenue has to be part of the mix even if they believe in lower taxes in general,” the report concludes.

The center’s president and chief executive, John Podesta, who is an Obama adviser, said the administration should consider a tax on consumption, such as a value-added tax system similar to that in use in the European Union. Mr. Podesta suggested that its impact should be limited to protect lower-income people, who otherwise might be hit particularly hard.

“As progressives we need to debate the policy merits and likelihood of enacting a range of options — including designing a small and more progressive value-added tax, changes to the corporate tax code, and taxing upper income earners beyond reversing the Bush tax cuts,” Mr. Podesta said in a statement Tuesday.

White House economic adviser Larry Summers and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner refused to rule out middle-class tax increases during Sunday talk-show appearances over the summer. “We have to bring these deficits down very dramatically,” Mr. Geithner said on ABC’s “This Week.” “And that’s going to require some very hard choices.” But White House press secretary Robert Gibbs disavowed the comments.

Of course Robert Gibbs disavowed those comments. He’s a liar. These are the people driving the president’s agenda. They’ll simply wait until it’s politically expedient to raise our taxes. Evan a repeal of the Bush tax cuts will be a tax increase on everybody. Throw in a value added tax and we’re looking an enormous tax hike. Just today Max Baucus said we need to have shared responsibility to pay for health care “reform” – what do you think he meant by that? And what do you think these new taxes will do for the economy. Get ready for a long, slow recovery folks.