Obama Administration Testing the Waters for Tax Increases?

Meredith Jessup | August 03, 2009 12:05 PM

During this weekend's Sunday talk shows, two administration officials appeared on different network shows and signaled possible flexibility in the Obama campaign's promises of no tax increases for the middle class.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Sunday he could not rule out higher taxes to help control an exploding budget deficit, and National Economic Council Director Larry Summers would not dismiss a rise on middle-class tax levels to help fund the administration's health care overhaul plans.

"If we want an economy that's going to grow in the future, people have to understand we have to bring those deficits down. And it's going to be difficult, hard for us to do. And the path to that is through health care reform," Geithner said. "We're not at the point yet where we're going to make a judgment about what it's going to take."

It's after noon the following Monday and I haven't seen any kind retraction from the White House to explain these statements. Made on two different shows by two different high-level administration officials, these statements may suggest the administration is starting to test the waters on raising middle class taxes to pay for health care.