Obama Won’t Keep Middle Class Tax Vow

Jonathan S. Tobin  "In a transparent effort to pre-empt Republican arguments about tax cuts, President Obama unveiled a proposal today for a one-year cut for all Americans making less than $250,000 per year. While calculated to play well with his faux working class campaign rhetoric, the president’s plan makes no economic sense. Implementing a massive tax increase on those with the capital to invest it and therefore create jobs is not the sort of thing that will help a flagging economy. Nor will it do anything to stem the bleeding that creates job reports such as the one released last Friday that illustrated the country’s unemployment problem. But, as James Pethokoukis writes at the American Enterprise Blog, the president’s dare to Congress to pass such a plan or to implement a simpler tax code is pure political baloney."

 James Pethokoukis: Is Obama’s new promise to lower middle-class tax rates credible?

"Of course, he had an opportunity to do just that — lowering rates and eliminating tax breaks — by embracing Simpson-Bowles, but he passed.  

"Also, recall what liberal journalist Noam Scheiber wrote in his recent book, The Escape Artists: How Obama’s Team Fumbled the Recovery."