“I can make a firm pledge, under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes.” – Barack Obama 9/12/08

The Democratic co-chairman of the bipartisan debt-reduction commission that President Barack Obama created on Thursday said that “everything is on the table” – including raising taxes and cutting Medicare and Social Security – but declined to discuss his preferences or predict what proposals will prevail.

“Everything is everything,” Erskine Bowles told McClatchy Newspapers. “I don’t think you’re going to be able to get there if you take anything off the table. We’ve got to look at good ideas, bad ideas and think about all of them.”

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