Barack Obama wants to raise your taxes! So does Hillary Clinton!

That’s the drumbeat about the Democratic candidates for president, but upon closer examination it looks as if the main fear is that the Bush tax cuts will end in 2010.

And why is that? Because they have an expiration date. And why is that? Because back when they were proposed there was a budget surplus and long-term forecasts showed that deficits would return if the cuts remained. So an expiration date was attached to woo the more fiscally responsible members of Congress.

That was the deal.

The hope among aggressive tax cutters was that the budget predictions would be wrong and that the lower rates would expand the economy enough to bring in sufficient revenue to balance the budget. With that evidence in hand, proponents could then make a plausible case for making the tax cuts permanent.

When this supply-side fantasy didn’t materialize, politicians and activists began deriding any wish to abide by the deal as “a tax hike.” The trick, you see, is to convince voters that Republican leaders in Congress and the president were somehow unaware of this technicality.

Don’t fall for it. If this planned-for resetting of tax rates is a tax increase, then it was set into motion by the very leaders who pretend to find it appalling.

Running on empty. To understand the absurdity of labeling expiration dates “tax hikes,” consider U.S. Sen. John McCain’s proposal for a gas-tax holiday.

He suggests lifting the federal government’s levy on gasoline this summer. But guess what? The tax cut would end on Labor Day.

That’s right: John McCain wants to raise your taxes!

Blackjack John. The tax cuts were reckless from the beginning, because the projections used to justify them didn’t allow for economic downturns or new government spending.

I’m not saying President Bush should’ve been able to predict the Sept. 11 attacks, the Iraq war, a massive prescription drug program for Medicare or the bursting of the housing bubble. But it was safe to assume that the rosy scenario would encounter some smudges along the way.

Budget hawk McCain voted against the tax cuts. He’s always been a proponent of balanced budgets. So, with the benefit of hindsight and the reality of today’s daunting budget challenges staring him right in the face, Sen. Straight Talk naturally wants to reverse course, right?

Um … no. McCain has decided to double down. Not only does he want the tax cuts made permanent, he wants to make them almost twice as big.