On Tax Day, rather than offer an explanation on why the Obama Administration has broken its 2008 campaign pledge not to raise taxes on families making less than $250,000 a year, White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer took to the White House blog to criticize my Wall Street Journal column, “Why Republicans Are Winning on the Tax Issue.”
Mr. Pfeiffer claimed that under the Obama Administration, federal taxes have been reduced by $173 billion. However, what he neglected to mention was that since January of 2009, President Obama and Congressional Democrats have enacted into law gross tax increases totaling more than $670 billion -- or more than $2,100 for every man, woman and child in the United States. The majority of these tax increases are a result of the new health care law alone. The Republican Ways and Means Committee put together a comprehensive tally of all the tax increases passes since January 2009.
If that wasn't enough to undermine Mr. Pfeiffer's weak response, last week the chief actuary for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, a major office within the Department of Health and Human Services, released a report showing that the President's new health care law will not "bend the health care curve" down as President Obama pledged, but cause it to increase.
Considering the $670 billion in tax increases and 1% increase in new health care spending contradict President Obama’s and Democrats’ pledges, let me recommend the next time Mr. Pfeiffer dismiss criticisms as “false,” he make sure the facts and figures are on his side. Because, to paraphrase that venerable Democratic Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Mr. Pfeiffer is entitled to his own opinion, but he’s not entitled to his own selective facts. After all, when it comes to taxes, Mr. Pfeiffer was asking the American people, “who you gonna believe, him or your lying eyes?”
Mr. Obama, when all is said and done, will rank as one of the greatest tax hikers in American history. His aides, rather than defending it, are trying to deny it. Unfortunately for them, they cannot outrun reality.