President Obama will not raise taxes on the middle class to pay for health care reform, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said today. Questions arose about raising taxes after two administration officials seemed to leave such a possibility open during Sunday show interviews.
“The president has made a clear commitment to not raise taxes on middle class families,” Gibbs said at his daily press briefing. When pressed, he said, “I don’t know how much clearer about his commitment I can be.”
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and National Economic Council Director Lawrence Summers didn’t rule out a tax hike during the interviews.
“We have to bring these deficits down very dramatically,” Geithner said on ABC’s This Week. “We’re not at the point yet where we’re going to make a judgment about what it’s going to take.”
“Oh, there’s a lot that can happen over time,” Summers said on CBS’s Face the Nation. “It’s never a good idea to absolutely rule things out no matter what.”
The Associated Press described the remarks thusly: “Two of President Barack Obama’s economic heavyweights said middle-class taxes might have to go up to pare budget deficits or to pay for the proposed overhaul of the nation’s health care system.”
The possibility of rising taxes for the middle class has become the health care meme of the day.
