Broken promises

I'll start this with a disclaimer. Every single President has broken his campaign promises. Every one of them. Campaign promises are about as reliable as the American auto industry. That said, I've stated to friends and family on several occasions that our current President's pledge on taxes was nothing more than a campaign promise, empty of value and was constantly told that, no, he's different, he's going to change things. My response was always, we'll see. Well, he's just like the rest folks, sorry to say. Here is a YouTube video showing his "pledge" on the campaign trail. In fact, this is a pledge, which one would think should hold more weight than just a promise. Nonetheless, a story today, from CNN, completely leaves that "pledge" in the dust. The pledge states that no American who makes less than 250,000 dollars a year will see an increase in their taxes, any kind of taxes. Well, the majority of people in this country who smoke cigarettes makes well under 250,000 dollars, so I guess this latest "sin" tax increase applies to them, doesn't it? So, obviously the "not any kind of taxes" pledge didn't apply to sin taxes? Well, that's not what he said, is it. Those of us who rely on plain English rather than political mumbo jumbo still see "any" as applying to all. This isn't just some sin tax increase. I'm not defending smoking. However, I'm not a smoker, so this increase doesn't effect me. But, 20 percent of the country does smoke. This is a 62 cent per pack increase. That's a lot of money to some of the least able to pay it in the country. After all, this 20 percent smokers isn't made up primarily of the uber rich, this is everyday America here. This affects many many people who make less than 250,000 dollars. How's that for keeping promises, no wait, pledges.