AND IN OTHER Middle Class Tax Developments....

FROM CNN’s Jack Cafferty:
The Obama administration is not ruling out tax increases on the middle class. And this could be a very big deal.
During the campaign — candidate Obama repeatedly promised the middle class wouldn’t see their taxes increase “one single dime.” In fact, he said he would 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.”
Fast forward a year… After bank bailouts, auto bailouts and the economic stimulus package — the president is trying to figure out a way to pay for all this plus health care reform while also reducing deficits. There aren’t many choices: either raise taxes or cut spending. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs today insisted the president wouldn’t break his campaign promise.
But Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and National Economic Council Director Larry Summers both sidestepped questions over the weekend about raising taxes on the middle class. Geithner said they’re not ready to rule out a tax increase to lower the deficit, while Summers pointed out that health care overhaul needs money from somewhere, saying “it is never a good idea to absolutely rule things out, no matter what.”
But the problem is, the president is the one who ruled it out. We all remember how former president George H. W. Bush’s famously promised: “Read my lips… no new taxes.” A couple years later, he raised taxes and that was the end of his presidency. He lost his bid for re-election to Bill Clinton after one term.
Here’s my question to you: Would breaking his word on tax hikes for the middle class make Barack Obama a one-term president?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
B. writes:He didn’t just say this once the way George Bush Sr. said “Read my lips: no new taxes”… Obama literally got elected by preaching this every single time he had a microphone in front of him for two years. This will be the unfortunate reward for all those who voted for Obama believing the fairytale that the rich would be forced to pay for everything, which the rest of America would get for free.
Mike writes:The White House has clarified today that it won’t happen. Rightly so — as it’s political suicide. It’s a non-story. So stop wasting the public’s time by hypothesizing about something that isn’t going to happen just so you can join the media “pile on” that is happening to this administration in an attempt to curry favor with “the average Joe.”
David writes:Read my lips: Yes. Everybody loves to get stuff for free. Raising taxes is only popular when others are paying. People whose taxes will eventually go up will turn on Mr. Obama. And, we will have to raise taxes on everybody.
Bill writes:In my opinion, the American people have seen just about enough of his radical side show to sink any possibility of a second term. Raising taxes will simply sink a ship that has already taken on too much water!
Mark writes:Jack, The party of tax cuts got us into this mess. All of a sudden, they have discovered fiscal responsibility — too late for many voters. The fiscal cost of preventing a depression is very high. When the recovery comes, it only makes sense that we all will have to pay for it. Biologists have yet to perfect the tree that grows money. If the voters won’t respect that, then they will get back the dumbed-down government that we recently kicked out.
Dave writes:Unless Obama moves very quickly to the middle, he’ll be a lame duck. Obama has let the left wing in Congress run wild. It’s still likely that come 2013 we will have a Democratic president; you may be able to guess what HER name is.

From High Brow Think Tanks - THAT WE ALREADY KNEW!

An article MSN Money points out something obvious to most of us..... and it took our tax dollars to fund a democratic think tank to figure this out?

The middle class today is less prepared for an economic emergency, such as losing a job or visiting an emergency room, than at any time since the late 1970s, concludes a new study from a political think tank in Washington, D.C., that's funded by Democrats.
"Middle Class in Turmoil," produced by the Center for American Progress and the Service Employees International Union, mines data from the Federal Reserve, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, census records and other sources to paint a picture of increasing peril for those in the middle 60% of income distribution, about $18,000 to $88,000.
Despite a growing economy, a rising stock market and stronger corporate earnings that are helping the rich get richer, the middle class in America is caught in an unprecedented squeeze that makes it increasingly unstable, the study's authors say. The financial declines each year since 2001 have been dramatic, they report:
Income for middle-class families has remained stagnant or flat since 2001.
Prices for big-ticket items -- housing, health care, college education and transportation -- have skyrocketed, leaving families unable to save.
Middle-class families are borrowing record amounts of money to pay their monthly bills.
"Families are being forced to live beyond their means, just to pay for the basics, such as housing and health care," said Christian Weller, a senior economist for the Center for American Progress, which is headed by John Podesta, a former Clinton-administration chief of staff. "They are not only spending their current income but all their future income."

The article goes on the blame not enough government programs to help the middle class, etc etc.....Hey I know what might help us! How about not taking 49% of my paycheck for taxes? How about leaving me with a little more money that I have worked hard to earn?And how about getting people out of the tax-funded government systems that don't belong there........What better way to give us money in our pocket to save or invest back into the economy than to "allow" us to keep more of our self-earned paychecks and profits? Ohhhhh.... but it's not that easy. According to who?Remember this: We fund the economy - we keep the businesses alive, we fund the programs that help the people who aren't in the businesses that we keep alive. And who funds our livelihoods? US. And who is struggling the most and falling farther and farther into "economic peril"? US. And who is having more and more of the earned dollars taken away? US.Stick that in your straw and suck it for a while, Think-Tank.