Who knew?

Well, maybe you did. Still, it's nice to have the Associated Press actually pointing out the obvious:

President Barack Obama promised to fix health care and trim the federal budget deficit, all without raising taxes on anyone but the wealthiest Americans. It's a promise he's already broken and will likely have to break again.

AP writer Stephen Ohlemacher would also like to remind you of a promise then-candidate Obama made:

Obama made a firm tax pledge during the presidential campaign, repeating it numerous times in the weeks and months leading up to Election Day: no tax increases for individuals making less than $200,000 a year or couples making less than $250,000.

"Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes," Obama told a crowd in Dover, N.H., last year.

Is that true? Not a chance. Ohlemacher explains:

Obama also signed an anti-smoking bill in June that grants authority to the Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco. To pay for the new program, a fee is being imposed on the industry — and presumably passed on to consumers — estimated to generate more than $5 billion over the next decade.

While not directly increasing taxes, a House-passed version of Obama's plan to reduce greenhouse gases blamed for causing global warming would similarly increase American families' home energy bills by $175 a year on average, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Here's the truth, folks. If any version of the cap and trade fiasco becomes law, the costs will far exceed the $175 per family increase in heating costs. All the companies that use power will also be affected and, to the extent possible, those costs will be passed on to consumers as well. And with inflationary pressures coming from the stimulus and other genius programs of this administration, many things are going to cost a lot more money, and soon.

With Senator Steaming Pile now occupying a chair in Washington, the D's pretty much have the muscle to do as they see fit. Change You Can Believe In is coming, good and hard.