President Obama invokes Bill Clinton’s economic record and tax rates as “a rebuttal” to Republicans who oppose tax increases during a recession, his spokesman said today, even though he himself held that position in 2009.

Obama talks about Clinton’s tax rates as “a rebuttal to Republicans who say this [tax increase] is terrible for the economy,” White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters today.

But Republicans, per Carney’s characterization, are agreeing with the 2009 version of Obama. “You don’t raise taxes in a recession,” Obama told NBC in his first year in office. “We haven’t raised taxes in a recession.”

Carney explained why Obama thinks it is acceptable to raise taxes on people making over $250,000 a year. “The dollar-for-dollar benefit of those tax cuts to the economy is much less than tax cuts that go to working Americans,” Carney said.