Obama's No New Taxes Claim 'Pre-Meditated Lie'

It seems the Pittsburgh Steelers weren’t the only ones having a bad day Sunday: Tax watchdogs are flagging President Barack Obama for lecturing Fox News host Bill O’Reilly that he’s never raised taxes.

One anti-tax expert even called Obama’s assertion a "pre-meditated lie.”

The “no new taxes” pledge from Obama came during his exclusive pre-Super Bowl interview with O’Reilly, the denizen of no-spin television.

O’Reilly asked the president to comment on a recent Wall Street Journal editorial charging that Obama aims to redistribute Americans’ wealth.

A bristling Obama insistent he “absolutely” denies that charge — and went on to insist that he’d never raised taxes.

“I didn’t raise taxes once,” Obama told O’Reilly. “I lowered taxes over the last two years. I lowered taxes for the last two years.”

There’s just one small problem for that statement from the president: Everyone from tax watchdogs to newspaper editors to independent fact-checking organizations say it’s simply not true.

“He lied,” Americans for Tax Reform founder and President Grover Norquist flatly tells Newsmax.

Obama has raised taxes more than 20 times, Norquist says.

Just 16 days after taking office, for example, the president signed legislation doubling the federal tax on cigarettes — a tax economists say disproportionately affects those earning less than $250,000 a year.

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