We Shall All Be Healed

There were plenty of reasons I voted for Obama in November, but one of the most important promises he made was to not raise taxes for those making under $250,000 per year. I thought it was great. After years of economic recovery plans that included randomly sending $400 to people, this would be a thoughtful measure to the twisted version of trickle-down economics that we saw for eight years. Plus, free health care. Weeeee. Well, maybe it was too great.

David Axelrod, Obama's right-hand man, went on This Week with George Stephanopoulos to essentially waffle on how to the president's promise. On the campaign trail, Obama said, "I can make a firm pledge: 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."

Strong words and an important message. It tells the American people that although times are bad, the government will not go after the little guy to fix it. Unfortunately, it may not be the case anymore. Axelrod told Stephanopolous that paying for that last one-third of universal health care is tricky. "But there are a number of formulations and we'll wait and see," he said. "The important thing at this point is to keep the process moving, to keep people at the table, to the keep the discussions going."

In general, it seems the media have cooled a bit on our president. Although the press does publicly ask questions of its own reporting, as is the self-importance sometimes seen in media, there have been numerous stories on if the "honeymoon" is over. After six months, I sure hope so.

There is one fantastic Web site, Politifact.com, that tracks the progress of his campaign promises and the truthfulness of other political statements. I highly recommend it.

I do still put myself in the approving category, and think Obama has done a fine job so far, but this tax hike (one that would affect most reporters) could completely knock him out of their, and the average American's, good graces. Here's hoping he finds a way.

-30-
Politifact