The Wall Street Journal
The health-care bills are loaded with taxes on families earning less than $250000 a year.
If your family earns less than $250000 a year you will not see your taxes increased a single dime. I repeat: not one single dime. So spoke Barack Obama at his first address to Congress in February. Were about to find out if the President cares about that promise as much he does passing a health-care bill.
Congressional Democrats have loaded up their health bills with provisions raising taxes on the middle-class by stacks and stacks of dimes. And Senate Democrats on Tuesday made clear they wont be bound by the Presidents vow; 54 voted to kill Idaho Republican Mike Crapos amendment to strip the bill of taxes on families earning less than $250000 and individuals earning less than $200000.
Those tax hits include a mandate of up to $750 a year for Americans who fail to purchase health insurance; new levies on small businesses (many of which file individual tax returns) that dont offer health care to employees; new tax penalties on health savings accounts and flexible spending accounts; and higher taxes on medical spending including restrictions on medical itemized deductions as well as taxes on cosmetic surgery. A Senate Finance Committee minority staff report finds that by 2019 more than 42 million individuals and familiesor 25 of all tax returns under $200000will on average see their taxes go up because of the Senate bill. And thats after government subsidies.
This profusion of tax hikes is central to the Democratic fiction that the Senate bill is budget neutral. And because many Senate Democrats are cool to the House proposal to fund legislation with a surtax on the wealthy many of these middle-tax hikes will likely remain in final legislation. Yet President Obama is embracing the bill.
Democrats are instead trying to claim that some taxes really arent taxes. The President in September engaged in a debate with ABCs George Stephanopoulos with the President arguing that the individual mandate isnt a tax since it is for the good of America. Michigan Senator Debbie Stabenow says increasing the amount of medical expenses a person must accumulate before deducting them also isnt a tax because most Americans dont itemize. Except the millions of middle-class Americans who do. Democrats have argued their restrictions on health savings accounts simply close tax loopholes and therefore also arent new taxes.
Americans who will be paying more to the IRS can be trusted to know the difference. In April Press Secretary Robert Gibbs was asked if the Presidents tax promise applied to health care. He replied: The statement didnt come with caveats. On the evidence in December it did.
