RUSH: Throughout the campaign and even after the immaculation of President Obama, he insisted, he promised — and he made no bones about this, by the way. No bones whatsoever. It was as firm a promise as any politician’s ever made, and I know we’re all cynical about politician promises, but he said, ‘Nobody making under $250,000 a year would have a tax increase.’ That is now off the table, and I told you last week: When Tim Geithner finished his meeting with the ChiComs and he said he 
assured the ChiComs we’re going to get our deficit under control, I translated it for you. I said, ‘It means tax increases are coming, for everybody.’ It came up on the Sunday shows. Here’s first up, montage of, ‘Is the recession over or not?’ The Sunday show host had a one track mind, is the recession over? And, of course, it is! Yes.
BOB SCHIEFFER: (music) Today on Face the Nation: Is the recession over?
DAVID GREGORY: Is the recession over?
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: The recession might be easing!
JESSICA YELLIN: When you do you project the recession will end?
CHRIS WALLCE: Isn’t the recession leveling off, and doesn’t President Obama deserve some credit?
RUSH: All right, now, we have a situation where the press is now willing to say, the state-controlled media, that the recession is over. The only problem is, people are still losing their jobs! You cannot have a genuine, legitimate economic recovery or end of a recession if there aren’t jobs being created. Here’s Geithner and your middle class tax increase coming up. Stephanopoulos says, ‘Revenues are on the table as well here?’
GEITHNER: Again, we’re not at the point yet where we’re going to make a judgment about what it’s going to take, but the important thing —
STEPHANOPOULOS: But you’re not ruling it out. You can’t rule it out!
GEITHNER: Well, uh, I think what the country needs to do is understand we’re going to have to do whatever it takes. We’re going to do what’s necessary.
RUSH: You’re just being told to wave good-bye to that promise that you’re not going to have a tax increase if you earn less than $250,000 a year, and he said in this interview: We have no choice. We have no choice. The country needs to understand we’re going to have to do what it takes. Bob Schieffer talking to Larry Summers: ‘You don’t see another round of tax increases coming? No tax increases for middle-income Americans?’
SUMMERS: There’s a lot that can happen, uhh, over time, but the priority right now — and so it’s never a good idea to absolutely rule things out no matter what.
RUSH: They already did rule it out! Obama already did rule it out. So here you have two officials of the Obama administration virtually promising you that your taxes are going up.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: They just had something very interesting happen at the White House. Robert Gibbs just threw Geithner and Summers under the bus at the White House briefing on the so-called tax increase on people who earn less than $250,000. Here’s Gibbs being grilled. First unidentified reporter: ‘Why didn’t Secretary Geithner and Dr. Summers say that they would not raise taxes on those families?’
GIBBS (sped up): I did not watch the shows. I read some of the transcripts. I think they allowed themselves to get into a little bit of a hypothetical back-and-forth.
RUSH: Jake Tapper follows up. He says, ‘Look, if economists — including the president’s own economists — don’t necessarily think that it’s possible to do so without raising taxes on the middle class, how is that dealing candidly with the American people?’
GIBBS (sped up): Again, Jake, there are a series of thing that have to be done. I think you’ll actually hear an announcement from Treasury later this afternoon about how much money has to be borrowed versus what they thought was gonna have to be borrowed and what will have to be borrowed as a result of financial stabilization, in terms of cutting the amount of money that’s needed. Uhhhh… Again, I think the president has been clear on this.
RUSH: The president has been clear? Now, the administration’s not being clear. Well, here. Let’s listen to the final bite. This is where he throws them under the bus. Another unidentified reporter: ‘Did Geithner and Summers go off script or were they testing the temperature on it?’
GIBBS: I don’t… I — I — I — (pause) I — I know the president’s been clear about his commitment on it.
REPORTER: So there’s no real scenario there where middle class taxpayers might be hit with a higher hike?
GIBBS: The president’s been clear. Very clear!
RUSH: ‘The president has been very clear.’ He didn’t say yes or no. He said, ‘The president has been very clear. The president has been very clear.’ But whether they’re going to raise taxes on people, they already have, with the tobacco taxes and all the fat taxes that are coming. Everybody’s going to get soaked tax-wise. Property taxes are going up; income taxes in the states are going up. So you’re asking yourself, ‘Who do I believe here? Do I believe Gibbs or do I believe Geithner? Do I believe Summers? Do I believe Obama? Who do I believe?’ You believe me. If you make a choice here that you’re going to believe Obama, you’ve got all kinds of conflicting Obamas out there over the years. If you want to believe Geithner, then you hear Gibbs say, ‘There’s going to be a statement coming out of Treasury this afternoon.’
That means Obama’s livid here that his cover has been blown. There’s no question he’s going to raise taxes on people. How else do you take away their power? You take away disposable income, take away purchasing power, and you have the ability to control people even more and make them more dependent on whatever you want to transfer to them or give them. You want to believe Summers? I mean they’re both out there saying, ‘Yeah, we’re going to have to relook at this.’ Now, Geithner is saying what he’s saying for the ChiComs. And I will guarantee you that what you’re not hearing… I’ll bet this was not asked at the White House press briefing. But I’m sure that Geithner did not go off script, and I’m sure that Summers did not go off script, because this is not about you.
It’s about the Chinese. It’s about our debt, and we’re having trouble selling it. People are becoming less trustful of the United States as an institution in which to invest. Because of the irresponsible way the economy is being run. That’s why they have to act like they’re concerned about revenues. So Geithner and Summers, their audience was the ChiComs. Today they knew full well the press was going to say, ‘What? What? What? What?’ ‘Well, the president’s been very clear.’ What they’re relying on is you trust Obama. He is The One. And these two little pointy headed elites that went out there? ‘Ah, they’re just underlings! We’ll throw ’em under the bus.’ The real audience is the ChiComs and the Chinese are not happy, and they are being assured we’re going to be doing something about the deficits — and that means raising taxes. It won’t do anything about the deficit, it’s going to make it worse, but it was just the way the left thinks.