Barack Obama repeatedly assured Americans that his big-spending agenda wouldn’t result in tax hikes to the middle class.  No, no, no, Obama repeatedly assured throngs of adoring crowds in 2007 and 2008 — soaking the rich would be enough to pay for a 33% expansion of the already-bloated federal budget.  In fact, the middle class would see their taxes go down as Obama held the fat cats accountable.  He rode the wave of John Edwards’ populism all the way to the White House.

And now?  The Daily Caller reports that the White House won’t even talk about the middle class and the likelihood of increasing their taxes:

A growing number of Democratic lawmakers have begun to make noise in recent days about raising taxes on the middle class and discarding President Obama’s promise not to increase the tax burden on those making $250,000 a year or less.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer is the most prominent. But another member of the House Democratic leadership, Rep. Xavier Becerra of California, also indicated that a middle class tax increase might be inevitable, as have three senior Democratic senators: Dianne Feinstein of California, Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, and Tom Harkin of Iowa.

Meanwhile, the only noise from the White House on the matter is a loud silence. Asked to comment on whether the president’s pledge not to raise taxes on the middle class still stands, the White House declined.

However, other Democrats don’t mind talking:

That same day, the three senators all questioned the $250,000 threshold.

“You could go lower, too — why not $200,000? With the debt and deficit we have, you can’t make promises to people,” Feinstein said.

Dorgan, who is up for reelection this fall, said: “I don’t think there’s any magic in the number, whether it’s $250,000, $200,000 or $225,000.”

“I’m not hard and fast on $250,000,” Harkin said. “Quite frankly, it could be somewhat lower than that.”

That led to this interesting exchange between Neil Cavuto and Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-CA), in which “extraordinary circumstances” makes its first appearance:

Ah, yes, the “extraordinary circumstances” of raising annual federal spending from $2.7 trillion in FY2007, in effect when Democrats took control of Congress, to over $3.8 trillion in just three years. In other words, enacting the Democratic agenda — which Obama assured voters would not require middle-class tax hikes — has become the “extraordinary circumstance” that Democrats need as an excuse to impose them.

Read their lips — everyone pays.