When is a Tax Hike Not a Tax Hike?

When it's a tax cut that's allowed to expire.

NEW YORK (Reuters.com) --The Obama administration's plan to cut more than $1 trillion from the deficit over the next decade relies heavily on so-called backdoor tax increases that will result in a bigger tax bill for middle-class families.

In the 2010 budget tabled by President Barack Obama on Monday, the White House wants to let billions of dollars in tax breaks expire by the end of the year -- effectively a tax hike by stealth.

Take a stroll down memory lane and recall this oh-so-sincere promise.



So how will an increasingly desperate White House and Democratic House finesse this? First, by heaping further opprobrium on W (of course) for the very real but far smaller deficits incurred during his tenure; then a blast at the irresponsibility of him and the Republicans "pushing through" (or similar words) a tax cut while those deficits were increasing and finally, insisting the tax cut's "expiration" is the only prudent and responsible thing to do; cloaking it in pious rhetoric of the importance of deficit reduction for future generations (but not a word about spending cuts, of course).

I think, though, the time these bozos could pull off such a stunt is passed; the reaction of an already wary populous to a stiff tax increase (and that is what they will call it regardless the language the Democrats use) in the midst of a severe recession will make that to ObamaCare seem mild by comparison. Unfortunately for the the President and the House, however, they have little choice but to allow the tax cuts to expire, being so closely identified with the hated Bush, whom they trash daily. To allow such a key piece of Bush-era legislation to live on would pretty much eliminate a vital scapegoat for this Administration's continual failures, perhaps the only scapegoat it has left.

UPDATE: Reuters has yanked the story after getting a call from the White House. The Administration insists the tax cuts will not be allowed to expire.