CROWLEY: The truth about the deficit commission
March 3rd, 2010 | Published in News
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Recommendation of higher taxes predetermined by membership
By Monica Crowley
A close look at President Obama’s newly announced “deficit commission” shows that instead of creating an independent-minded panel, he’s created his own personal special-interest group, made up of members as in love with big spending and averse to real spending cuts as he is.
Mr. Obama – the biggest spender in presidential history – created the commission by executive order (after the Senate failed to do so), ostensibly to give him recommendations on deficit and debt reduction and spending control. It’s supposed to offer ways to bring down the federal deficit to 3 percent of gross domestic product by 2015, compared with 10 percent currently, and to constrain the surging costs of huge entitlements like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Mr. Obama has also asked the commission to look at the tax code in order to consider tax increases. And therein lies its real reason for being. Any sentient human being knows this is simply a cover to raise taxes on everyone, particularly the middle class, for whom Mr. Obama promised no tax increases. “If you make less than $250,000 a year, your taxes will not go up – not by one penny,” he said incessantly during the campaign. So much for that.