Last night during an interview for 60 Minutes, President Obama made the false declaration that "I haven't raised taxes."  But recent news coming out of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) begs to differ, and a majority of proof that the President's statement is patently false comes from his signature legislation - Obamacare.

During his interview, Obama blamed rhetoric and lies for the notion that he has raised taxes.

"Well, it's a lot of rhetoric, but there aren't a lot of facts supporting it. Taxes are lower on families than they've been probably in the last 50 years. So I haven't raised taxes.  I've cut taxes for middle class families by an average of $3,600 per typical family.”

Here's what the facts do support, however.

A recent analysis from the CBO states that Obamacare will raise taxes on 6 million Americans.  Those individuals will be subject to a tax penalty for failing to purchase health care once the new law is in effect.  An excerpt from the report reads:

"... CBO and JCT now estimate that about 6 million people will pay a penalty because they are uninsured in 2016 (a figure that includes uninsured dependents who have the penalty paid on their behalf ) and that total collections will be about $7 billion in 2016 and average about $8 billion per year over the 2017–2022 period."

An Associated Press report explains that a majority of those 6 million people - 80% - reside in the middle class.

"... in his first campaign for the White House, Obama pledged not to raise taxes on individuals making less than $200,000 a year and couples making less than $250,000. And the budget office analysis found that nearly 80 percent of those who'll face the penalty would be making up to or less than five times the federal poverty level.”

Worse, in 2016, 4.7 million Americans living in families that earn less than $123,000 annually will be subjected to the individual mandate tax within Obamacare.

It isn't just the middle class that will suffer under the weight of Obama's new taxes.  Grover Norquist, head of Americans for Tax Reform says that low-income families will also be adversely affected.

Eight tax increases in the health care law "directly hit low-income people," Norquist said ... "The president didn't keep his word when he said he wouldn't raise taxes on people earning less than $200,000 a year."

Other examples of tax increases lying within Obamacare (though not specific to middle income families) include a 10% tax on the use of indoor tanning services, and an additional Medicare tax of 0.9% on higher income earners.

Further, the President signed a bill in 2009 that raised the federal excise tax on all tobacco products - an attempt to raise revenue for his anticipated expansion of health insurance.

Only a man of questionable character can state without reservation that he has not raised taxes, while simultaneously knowing he is the source of legislation that has resulted in numerous tax increases, passing a bill that Forbes Magazine has labeled "the largest tax increase in U.S. history."

If Barack Obama's campaign slogan is "It could have been worse," Mitt Romney's seems to be "It won't be as bad." Mitt Romney's comment on Meet the Press about maintaining 'guaranteed issue' in his 'repeal and replace' health plan means there will be no repealing and far less replacing. When combined with comments about his opposition to tax cuts which will effectively raise the net tax burden for many, they reinforce an aversion to free market solutions that causes many conservatives to cringe when faced with the prospect of supporting his candidacy.

What Mitt Romney fails to acknowledge or perhaps does not understand is that 'guaranteed issue' is the reason why health insurance premiums are dramatically higher in liberal northeastern states like Massachusetts than they are in the rest of the country. "Guaranteed issue' provides that an insurance company must issue a policy no matter the health of the applicant. What it guarantees is that healthy people wait until they become sick before applying for coverage. Consequently, 'guaranteed issue' forces insurance companies to assume that each new policy applicant has cancer and price coverage accordingly in order to ensure that they have sufficient capital to pay anticipated claims. Imagine if insurance companies priced homeowners insurance as if every house was located in a flood zone, or automobile insurance as if every driver had a history of alcohol abuse and reckless driving. While Mitt Romney may feel empathy for people who are born with expensive illnesses, they comprise a sliver of the population and their coverage requirements can be dealt with in much more cost effect ways.

In addition, Mitt Romney expressed an interest in maintaining the provision that children be allowed to stay on their parents' health insurance policy, as he put it, "up to whatever age they might like." Does Mitt Romney envision maintaining his 60 year-old children on his health insurance policy when he reaches 80 years of age? This is hardly the warm embrace of free market solutions he spoke of in his convention acceptance speech.

Further, Mitt Romney added,

"I can tell you that people at the high end, high-income taxpayers, are going to have fewer deductions and exemptions. Those numbers are going to come down. Otherwise they'd get a tax break. And I want to make sure people understand, despite what the Democrats said at their convention, I am not reducing taxes on high-income taxpayers."

During the tax debate that occurred after the 2010 midterm elections, Congressional Republicans proudly reminded us that raising taxes on high-income taxpayers would be raising taxes on the small businesses that are the engine of economic growth in America. Mitt Romney is proposing that Congressional Republicans break their pledge to small business. By reducing federal income tax rates but not by an amount sufficient to account for the  elimination of deductions for state and local taxes as well as mortgage interest, Mitt Romney will ask Congressional Republicans to reverse the pledge they made to small business not to raise their taxes. Further, if Mitt Romney was a true free marketeer, he would join the rest of the Republican party and the conservative movement and endorse a flat tax or at the very least, a significant flattening of the Internal Revenue Code similar to what was proposed in the House budget offered by his running mate.

By reversing course and endorsing parts of Obamacare, Mitt Romney is running the campaign Barack Obama should have run by saying he and Mitt Romney are not so different after all. Barack Obama will become the first American President to preside over a net job loss and yet he is LEADING most swing state polls. This is not because voters mistrust Mitt Romney because he is a rich guy who does not understand their struggles. It is because voters do not trust that Mitt Romney has values that are inviolable. Repealing Obamacare is not an applause line to the conservative movement that manufactured a 60 seat swing in the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2010 midterm elections. It is our raison d'etre! We do not want Massachusetts liberalism to infest conservatism and reverse the accomplishments we fought so hard for.

To paraphrase a biblical story, Moses smashed the tablets when he came down from Mt Sinai because his people were not prepared to receive them and were thus relegated to forty years wandering the desert. I worry that unless Mitt Romney reverses course relinquishing his embrace of Obamacare and tax hikes, the American people may be in for four more years of wandering.

Allen West dropped by the Blogger Hangout at the RNC Convention on August 30, and was very gracious with his time. On his legislative agenda for 2013, he discussed tax reform and regulatory reform as a means to unleash small business success. He took a quick little shot at Harry Reid too, challenging him to pass the job creating legislation that has been blocked from a full vote at the Senate. I asked him about Sen. McCain's Convention remarks about the current state of the Middle East. He came out in strong defense of Prime Minister Netanyahu and Israel's right as a sovereign nation to take action to protect itself from Iran, and he made a point of stating that America needs to take a supportive role in relation to its allies in the region. He paints a bleak picture of what's going on in the region due to a lack of American leadership.

Finally, he states that the reason that the momentum is on the side of the GOP is because we are talking about principles, stating that when Republicans stand on Conservative values and talk about the Constitution, we win.

The delays caused by Hurricane Isaac at the RNC Convention in Tampa, and the subsequent rush of speakers during two days' worth of convention sessions squeezed into a single day, were emblematic of the Romney campaign strategy as a whole. For the past few months, it's been clear that Romney would secure enough delegate votes to secure the election, and the nation has been waiting for the campaign to go on offense against the failed policies and deliberate expansion of government by the Obama administration.

Just as the speakers were finally unleashed at the convention after a delay, so too has the Republican playbook for victory in November been revealed.

After the official business of the convention was completed, there was a total of 23 political speakers crammed into two sessions. Several very distinct themes were repeated by nearly every speaker, giving a clear look into the Romney campaign strategy. Suffice it to say that these themes give Conservatives across the nation several compelling messages to use to defeat the Left in November.

The themes that were repeatedly hammered home were:

1. We Built That

When President Obama said those immortal words, "If you got a business, you didn't build that", he insulted millions of Americans who worked their fingers to the bone to build a better life for their families. The convention speakers clearly indicated that the Romney campaign are going to hammer this message home, over and over until November. In fact, the slogan We Built That was everywhere - in ads aired on screen, prominently displayed on the walls, and on signs throughout the arena. Speaker after speaker told story after story of small business owners who worked uncounted hours, day after day, with no profit and no certainty of the outcome, until they were finally able to find success and comfort as rewards for their hard work. In fact, half a dozen small business owners told the stories themselves, invited by their governors or representatives to share the stage. This is a powerful message that the Left cannot counter; their only tactic is to fancifully claim that the President was taken out of context when he made that silly statement. Several speakers went even further, demonstrating how their own success has led to the creation of good jobs for others to see their own level of success.

For instance, Bev Gray, a small business owner in New Hampshire, shared her example:

Imagine, working every day for four years without a paycheck. I did.
I worked while our children, Jessica and Kevin, played and napped. And after I tucked them into bed, I worked.

Our first nine months, we had one client -- a client who waited six months to pay us. We sustained our business by tapping into our personal credit cards and borrowing against our home.

The commitments, expenses and the stress kept us up at night, but we were determined to build a successful business. And after several years of hard work, long hours, no pay and low pay, we did.

Today, Exhibit Edge employs 20 people and helps businesses grow through trade show marketing. When those businesses grow, they employ people.

The President said that business owners didn't get there on our own.

Well, he's wrong.

2. Obama's handling of the economy has been an unmitigated failure. I lost count of how many speakers repeated the observation that the official unemployment rate has been over 8% for 42 straight months, worse than during the Great Depression.  Jason Chaffetz had a great line: "We are not merely one tax increase away from prosperity in America."

3. Washington spending is out of control and unsustainable, and our leaders should speak to us like adults instead of taking the easy way out.

Most speakers made a conscious effort to point to the debt clock displayed in the arena to remind Americans how out of control our spending has gotten under President Obama. The contrast of leadership versus the abdication of leadership also made several appearances. Chris Christie might have said it best: "Leaders aren't influenced by polls. Real leaders change polls."

4. How candidate families shaped their conservative values, often raised by parents living in poverty after emigrating to the US, and Conservative values win hearts and minds among minorities.

Several speakers repeatedly hit this theme, making the clear point that dependence on government is tantamount to slavery and is an insult to the entreprenurial spirit of everyone - but especially among minorities. The assumption from the Left seems to be that minorities somehow lack that spirit. The Conservative speakers positioned themselves as the champions of liberty and opportunity, and that this was the best pathway for minorities - or anyone - to make a better life for themselves and their families.

This theme was typified by Ted Cruz, Senate Candidate in Texas:

Fifty-five years ago, when my dad was a penniless teenage immigrant, thank God some well-meaning bureaucrat didn't put his arm around him and say let me take care of you. Let me give you a government check and make you dependent on government. And by the way, don't bother
learning English. That would have been the most destructive thing anyone could have done.

Instead, my parents worked together to start a small business, to provide for their family and to chart their own future. That's the American dream, and Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan understand that.

Under President Obama, 23 million Americans are struggling for work. Hispanic unemployment has risen to over 10 percent; African-American unemployment is over 14 percent. This is tragic.

And here I want to say something especially to the Democrats who are listening tonight. You can send a wake-up message to your party - the party that was once proud to be the party of working
people. Obama's policies have failed.

Jobs don't come from government; they come from entrepreneurs and small businesses. Two thirds of all new jobs come from small business, and 2.3 million Hispanics own small businesses and yet this Administration has imposed higher taxes and crushing regulations on small businesses across our nation.

6. Conservative Governors succeeded in eliminating deficits and balancing budgets while cutting spending and taxes, just like Romney did as Governor of Massachusetts

Several Republican Governors made this point, including Bob McDonnell of Virginia, Nikki Haley of South Carolina, and others. However, easily the biggest ovation of the night outside of Ann Romney was received by Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. He had this to say about state budgets:

The good news is that - on June 5th - the hard-working taxpayers won.

Just ask Sandy Breth why that's important.

When the economy took a dive a few years ago, she took a pay cut. Not long after that, she lost her job. Today, however, she's working at G3 Industries in Mosinee, Wisconsin. In fact, she just received a promotion.

G3 is one of those companies that added jobs during the past year, and now has plans to add even more. The owner told me that he's creating additional jobs in Wisconsin because he likes the way we are moving our state forward - and he's even more committed since the election.

Without our positive changes, he told me he would not have had the confidence to grow his business in Wisconsin. Improving the business climate is not only good for small business owners; it's good for people like Sandy and her family.

We need more stories like hers in America because the past couple of years have been well, pretty tough. Like many places across the country, Wisconsin lost more than 100,000 jobs from 2008 to 2010. Unemployment during that time topped out at over 9%.

But because of our reforms, Wisconsin has added thousands of new jobs and our unemployment rate is down from when I first took office. Equally as important, we improved the economic climate for job creators.

Today, 94% of our employers believe Wisconsin is headed in the right direction. That compares to just 10% who thought the same thing two years ago.

Elections have consequences!

As was the case in Wisconsin two years ago, too many Americans think our country is headed in the wrong direction. But Mitt Romney understands, like I understand, that people - not governments - create jobs. With that in mind, my Administration is making it easier for people to create jobs in Wisconsin.

Our reforms put the hard working taxpayers back in charge.

7. 2012 is the time when we all have been called to equal the greatest achievements of Americans past and rise to the challenges of our day. We are called to save America - not for ourselves, but our children and grandchildren. America is on the brink, and we have a choice to make - whether to save her, or whether to let her fade away.

In sum, after a weather delay, Conservatives made a very strong case to the American people that Conservative values, fiscal responsibility and limited government are what has made America both great and prosperous, and provide the greatest opportunity for success to every person regardless of social situation. Conservatives are ready to go on offense and defeat the Leftist agenda of big government, out of control spending and abject failure.

California has lost 600,000 jobs in the last decade and has a $26 billion deficit. Their public schools aren’t performing well, with lower grades and graduation rates than students in other states. It makes sense that a community would want to invest in education, but one would expect reasonable return on investment. Yet, in Poway United School District, taxpayers voted to spend $1 billion to borrow $105 million.

It is made even more irresponsible by the fact that payments, even interest-only payments, are deferred 20 years. The majority of payments are deferred 35 to 40 years. That’s right, California is settling the next generation with even more debt.  Two payments of over $300 million each are due in 2046 and 2051. It is not possible to pay off the debt early, so a sudden bout of responsibility is off the table. The bond, although being used in other districts around California, is so odd that it has been made illegal in Michigan.

The deal was sold to taxpayers by promising that their property taxes would not be raised again. According to  NBC San Diego, Superintendent John Collins said “if we made (our kids) wait twenty years until the tax rate would have supported that, where would they be now?”  Where will they be in 40 years? At the rate people are leaving California, there won’t be anybody left to shoulder the burden.

Is it any wonder California is going broke?