Click on the above video to read Barack Obama's lips as he says, "No new taxes!"

CNN's Ed Hornick asks whether that campaign promise puts Obama "on shaky ground." Well, of course it does.

Especially when the president's two main money advisers, Tim Geithner and Larry Summers, are already breaking Obama's word by not ruling it out, prompting a strong response from Obama flack Robert Gibbs, who insisted that Obama will not raise taxes on people who make less than $250,000 a year. The Washington Post's Michael A. Fletcher writes: "If two of President Obama's top economic advisers cracked open the door to the possibility middle-class tax increases Sunday, the White House slammed it shut on Monday."

No, the White House only says it was slamming it shut.

It's painful to get a reality check from Arizona's arch-conservative senator, Jon Kyl, who, no matter his motives, says: "I think that what the secretary and Mr. Summers said Sunday is actually more true than the press secretary tried to make it out to be. It's simply a recognition of a reality that you can't pay for all of this and not impose taxes on middle Americans."

There will be tax hikes — maybe disguised as fees, whatever. Yes, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger just signed off on a budget measure that included no tax increases. But he simply slashed and burned programs, and Obama has no such luxury: Who pays for the health-care package and the Afghan War? Not California.

And even if the recession really is easing, the federal government's still going to have to bail out the broke-ass state governments.

Where does your state rank among those in the rankest shape? Check this CNN graphic.