According to the Sept. 19 White House fact sheet, “The President calls on [the super committee] to undertake comprehensive tax reform, and lays out five principles for it to follow: 1) lower tax rates; 2) cut wasteful loopholes and tax breaks; 3) reduce the deficit by $1.5 trillion; 4) boost job creation and growth; and 5) comport with the “Buffett Rule” that people making more than $1 million a year should not pay a smaller share of their income in taxes than middle-class families pay.”

But the administration’s tax plan violates these principles. It raises rather than lowers tax rates, shrinks tax deductions to pay for more spending, makes no believable contribution to economic growth, has nothing specific to say about the Buffett Rule, . . .

This is from Alan Reynolds, “The Spend Now, Tax Later Jobs Bill.” Wall Street Journal, September 22, 2011.

I noted yesterday Megan McArdle’s post pointing out that for all Obama’s talk about Warren Buffett and other rich people paying a lower percent of their income in taxes than secretaries do, his plan does nothing to change that for people like Buffett.

Alan Reynolds points this out too, but goes further. Obama himself, as Reynolds notes in the first paragraph above, advocated lower tax rates along with cutting loopholes and other tax breaks. But his own proposal is to raise tax rates.

I’m used to politicians saying one thing and doing another. I’m used to politicians lying. But it’s strange for a politician to say one thing and then say the opposite, and act as if he’s saying the same thing both times, all in the space of about a week.