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Next week, the U.S. House of Representatives will be voting on an historic repeal of the Obamacare law. While there are many reasons to oppose this flawed government health insurance law, it is important to remember that Obamacare is also one of the largest tax increases in American history. Below is a comprehensive list of the two dozen new or higher taxes that pay for Obamcare’s expansion of government spending and interference between doctors and patients. Individual Mandate Excise Tax(Jan 2014): Starting in 2014, anyone not buying “qualifying” health insurance must pay an income surtax according to the higher of the following
1 Adult 2 Adults 3+ Adults 2014 1% AGI/$95 1% AGI/$190 1% AGI/$285 2015 2% AGI/$325 2% AGI/$650 2% AGI/$975 2016 + 2.5% AGI/$695 2.5% AGI/$1390 2.5% AGI/$2085 Exemptions for religious objectors, undocumented immigrants, prisoners, those earning less than the poverty line, members of Indian tribes, and hardship cases (determined by HHS) Employer Mandate Tax(Jan 2014): If an employer does not offer health coverage, and at least one employee qualifies for a health tax credit, the employer must pay an additional non-deductible tax of $2000 for all full-time employees. This provision applies to all employers with 50 or more employees. If any employee actually receives coverage through the exchange, the penalty on the employer for that employee rises to $3000. If the employer requires a waiting period to enroll in coverage of 30-60 days, there is a $400 tax per employee ($600 if the period is 60 days or longer). Combined score of individual and employer mandate tax penalty: $65 billion/10 years Surtax on Investment Income ($123 billion/Jan. 2013): This increase involves the creation of a new, 3.8 percent surtax on investment income earned in households making at least $250,000 ($200,000 single). This would result in the following top tax rates on investment income
*Other unearned income includes (for surtax purposes) gross income from interest, annuities, royalties, net rents, and passive income in partnerships and Subchapter-S corporations. It does not include municipal bond interest or life insurance proceeds, since those do not add to gross income. It does not include active trade or business income, fair market value sales of ownership in pass-through entities, or distributions from retirement plans. The 3.8% surtax does not apply to non-resident aliens. Excise Tax on Comprehensive Health Insurance Plans($32 bil/Jan 2018): Starting in 2018, new 40 percent excise tax on “Cadillac” health insurance plans ($10,200 single/$27,500 family). For early retirees and high-risk professions exists a higher threshold ($11,500 single/$29,450 family). CPI +1 percentage point indexed. Hike in Medicare Payroll Tax($86.8 bil/Jan 2013): Current law and changes:
First $200,000 ($250,000 Married) Employer/Employee All Remaining Wages Employer/Employee Current Law 1.45%/1.45% 2.9% self-employed 1.45%/1.45% 2.9% self-employed Obamacare Tax Hike 1.45%/1.45% 2.9% self-employed 1.45%/2.35% 3.8% self-employed
Medicine Cabinet Tax($5 bil/Jan 2011): Americans no longer able to use health savings account (HSA), flexible spending account (FSA), or health reimbursement (HRA) pre-tax dollars to purchase non-prescription, over-the-counter medicines (except insulin) HSA Withdrawal Tax Hike($1.4 bil/Jan 2011): Increases additional tax on non-medical early withdrawals from an HSA from 10 to 20 percent, disadvantaging them relative to IRAs and other tax-advantaged accounts, which remain at 10 percent. Flexible Spending Account Cap – aka“Special Needs Kids Tax”($13 bil/Jan 2013): Imposes cap of $2500 (Indexed to inflation after 2013) on FSAs (now unlimited). . There is one group of FSA owners for whom this new cap will be particularly cruel and onerous: parents of special needs children. There are thousands of families with special needs children in the United States, and many of them use FSAs to pay for special needs education. Tuition rates at one leading school that teaches special needs children in Washington, D.C. (National Child Research Center) can easily exceed $14,000 per year. Under tax rules, FSA dollars can be used to pay for this type of special needs education. Tax on Medical Device Manufacturers($20 bil/Jan 2013): Medical device manufacturers employ 360,000 people in 6000 plants across the country. This law imposes a new 2.3% excise tax. Exemptions include items retailing for less than $100. Raise "Haircut" for Medical Itemized Deduction from 7.5% to 10% of AGI($15.2 bil/Jan 2013): Currently, those facing high medical expenses are allowed a deduction for medical expenses to the extent that those expenses exceed 7.5 percent of adjusted gross income (AGI). The new provision imposes a threshold of 10 percent of AGI; it is waived for 65+ taxpayers in 2013-2016 only. Tax on Indoor Tanning Services($2.7 billion/July 1, 2010): New 10 percent excise tax on Americans using indoor tanning salons Elimination of tax deduction for employer-provided retirement Rx drug coverage in coordination with Medicare Part D($4.5 bil/Jan 2013) Blue Cross/Blue Shield Tax Hike($0.4 bil/Jan 2010): The special tax deduction in current law for Blue Cross/Blue Shield companies would only be allowed if 85 percent or more of premium revenues are spent on clinical services Excise Tax on Charitable Hospitals(Min$/immediate): $50,000 per hospital if they fail to meet new "community health assessment needs," "financial assistance," and "billing and collection" rules set by HHS Tax on Innovator Drug Companies($22.2 bil/Jan 2010): $2.3 billion annual tax on the industry imposed relative to share of sales made that year. Tax on Health Insurers($60.1 bil/Jan 2014): Annual tax on the industry imposed relative to health insurance premiums collected that year. The stipulation phases in gradually until 2018, and is fully-imposed on firms with $50 million in profits. $500,000 Annual Executive Compensation Limit for Health Insurance Executives($0.6 bil/Jan 2013) Employer Reporting of Insurance on W-2(Min$/Jan 2011): Preamble to taxing health benefits on individual tax returns. Corporate 1099-MISC Information Reporting($17.1 bil/Jan 2012): Requires businesses to send 1099-MISC information tax forms to corporations (currently limited to individuals), a huge compliance burden for small employers “Black liquor” tax hike(Tax hike of $23.6 billion). This is a tax increase on a type of bio-fuel. Codification of the “economic substance doctrine”(Tax hike of $4.5 billion). This provision allows the IRS to disallow completely-legal tax deductions and other legal tax-minimizing plans just because the IRS deems that the action lacks “substance” and is merely intended to reduce taxes owed.
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cash, once again you are drinking from the koolaid fountain.
our economy collapsed under the Bush tax cuts. there is no debate that anyone has offered me to change this fact, becuase it is unchangeable and immutable, Bush's tax cuts did not work before nor will tax cuts work again until taxes have been raised to unreasonable rates again (like 70%). At that time? tax cuts could be used to stimulate teh economy, but not before.
the koolaid being served up is tainted heavily with poison. history shows us that raising taxes does not cut productivity or hurt the economy and lying is not patriotic. So stop spreading the lies. raising taxes SUCKS! but it does not suck because it hurts the economy. it never has hurt the economy, it is simply not popular...
this article refuses to address the FACT that health care was already BREAKING our economy BEFORE Obamacare was passed.
our economy collapased under deregualtion and decreased taxation and arguing that raising taxes will destroy it more is simply synthetic bullcrap. It isn't even real bullcrap...
how about posting what you beleive instead of regurgitating the neo-con-t-Party Ideocracy lines?
there is stuff that needs to be fixed. quite frankly? the fact is that fat-cat Doctors have taken our credit card and run it out to the limit right along with the fat cat politicians. and if you want to fix health care? you should force doctors to work for a very generous salary. after all we do agree that there is no price too high to pay for good health care is there? so theoretically the doctors will charge as much the freemarket will bear every time which means that they shgould just have all of our money cuz they "give us life"......
want to fix insirance co's? get rid of them. it's socialism just like China is still Commie. It doens't matter if you have Communism or Socialism for Profit, they are still Communism and Socialism. Making them for profit simply garantees they will win the war of natural selection -get it? Insurance is sharingthe risk. Tha's not freemarket. That's Socialism
the GOP is wasting precious time and money by attempting repeal the whole thing. They have no intention of succeeding, it's just poltical theatre and propaganda. As long as people like you keep blindly supporting the GOP withous tstopping and thinking about the implications oft heir actions (or more specifically lack of action)? the GOP is doomed to failure. They will not win antything by voting to repeal Obamacare. except to look fools to people that are not stupid.
-------------------- Don't envy the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise.
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you know waht? if GOP peeople actaully started thinking instead of spouting and repspouting the propaganda?
they'd demand that we kill the whole tax code and replace it with a simple one that has NO deductions at all. It simply charges the minimum amount of tax we can afford- to everybody across the board..
i am sick of hearing so-called Conservative talking heads complain about the high taxes when anybody who knows anything about tax laws knows that the loopholes are everywhere and that the most succesfull people and co's in this country pay the least amount of taxes as a pecentage of their income. It really is that simple. Instead? We get to hear how they want to repeal the Obamacare law even tho it is impossible to do so...
-------------------- Don't envy the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise.
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After Promising To ‘Repeal And Replace’ Obama’s Health Law, Republicans Have No Replacement As the first major legislative act with their new majority, Republicans are planning to hold a futile vote next week to repeal President Obama’s health care law. The laughably named “Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act” has an equally laughable chance of becoming law, as the Democratic majority in the Senate will inevitably block it. President Obama has also confirmed that he’ll veto it.
Nonetheless, House Republicans are rushing headlong into inevitable defeat, insisting that their efforts aren’t doomed, and promising to “replace” Obama’s law with their own, better one. “Repeal and replace” has been a mantra for Republicans and their conservative allies since March of last year, though the repealers have been hazy on with what they would “replace” it with.
On Fox News Sunday today, conservative Weekly Standard Editor Bill Kristol could offer only the vaguest of promises about the replacement. When Fox News contributor Juan Williams challenged Kristol to explain “what are you going to replace it with?”, Kristol told Williams not to worry, because there would be hearings in a few months and Republicans would probably come up with something by then. It seems House Republican leaders fully understand the pointlessness of their effort. Just days away from the repeal vote, House leaders have no coherent plan to address health care if their repeal effort succeeds. The Washington Post’s Amy Goldstein reports that “according to GOP House leaders, senior aides and conservative health policy specialists, Republicans have not distilled their ideas into a coherent plan”:
On the cusp of undertaking this work, the GOP has a cupboard of health-care ideas, most going back a decade or more. They include tax credits to help Americans afford insurance, limiting awards in medical malpractice lawsuits and unfettering consumers from rules that require them to buy state-regulated insurance policies. In broad strokes, the approach favors the health-care marketplace over government programs and rules. [...]
In the absence of a plan, Republican leaders nevertheless are eager to convey that they have ideas about health care – and are not merely trying to knock down those of the Democrats. As a result, they have drafted a resolution to accompany the repeal legislation. It lays out broad, long-held GOP health-care goals, but no specifics, and directs four House committees to develop proposals. [...]
The range of current thinking in the House is not entirely clear, with 87 Republican freshmen and nearly half the members of the influential Ways and Means panel new this year.
The repeal ploy and the lack of real ideas suggest the new majority is uninterested in serious governing.
-------------------- Wise men learn more from fools than fools from the wise.
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quote:Originally posted by CashCowMoo: I dont get why facts are a kool aid fountain glass. All I did was post what is coming, thats all. Nothing more nothing less.
Yes glass, I know that health care costs go up every year, just like about everything else in this world. I am not big on insurance companies.
I do wonder why lobbysist thing that Obama swore he would handle has not changed. Transparency? What is that?
the koolaid fountain as i and buck have ben trying to to tell you is that you are wasting your time posting propaganda. the GOP has no traction to repeal anything, and this is a waste of time..
like we have told you a brazillian times now, if you want change? tell YOUR OWN PARTY, this coplaining about the other party stuff is how they have managed to turn politics into a scam.
Obama care needs fixing, but repealing it in total is a waste of time cuz the Senate won't go there and Obam can just veto.. not only that but there is actually some stuff in there worht saving and dumping the whole thing is going backwards and wasting years of work... repairing this thing is something that can be done if they actually want to do ANYTHING other then biotch about the "liberals" all day long -- i don't think they really want to do anything but spread discontent until they get re-elected, which will not happen if they do nothing...
if they want to spend the next two years on this? we are in for a long wait. remember that Clinton lost the Senate too, Obama did not, and that was because the Tparty is like a snickers- full of nuts..
health care reform is economic reform even tho the politicos want to try to make it something else, health care has not been going up like everything else, it's been going up much faster than almost anything else.. except maybe gold..
-------------------- Don't envy the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise.
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The Internal Revenue Service says it will need an battalion of 1,054 new auditors and staffers and new facilities at a cost to taxpayers of more than $359 million in fiscal 2012 just to watch over the initial implementation of President Obama's healthcare reforms. Among the new corps will be 81 workers assigned to make sure tanning salons pay a new 10 percent excise tax. Their cost: $11.5 million.
"The ACA [Affordable Care Act] will require additional resources to build new IT systems; modify existing tax processing systems; provide taxpayer outreach and assistance services; make enhancements to notices, collections, and case management systems to address and resolve taxpayer issues timely and accurately; and conduct focused examinations to encourage compliance," said the newly released IRS budget.
In its request, the IRS explained that the tax changes associated with health reform are huge. "Implementation of the Affordable Care Act of 2010 presents a major challenge to the IRS. ACA represents the largest set of tax law changes in more than 20 years, with more than 40 provisions that amend the tax laws."
Unsaid: The requests are just the beginning, since the new healthcare program is evolving and won't be fully implemented until about 2014.
The detailed IRS budget documents spell out exactly what most of the new workforce will be doing. For example, some 81 will be tasked just to handle the tax reporting of 25,000 tanning salons. They face a new 10 percent excise tax on indoor tanning services. Another 76 will be assigned to make sure businesses engaged in making and imported drugs pay their new fee which is expected to deliver $2.8 billion to the Treasury in 2012 and 2013. The new healthcare corps will also require new facilities and computers.
The document gives the GOP a bright target to hit if they plan to make good on promises to defund the president's healthcare plan.
Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, who's become a point man in the budget battle, told Whispers, "The president's irresponsible budget empowers the IRS to begin to audit Americans' healthcare. As the IRS says, Obamacare represents the largest set of tax changes in more than 20 years. Adding hundreds of new jobs and millions of dollars to the IRS isn't going to make care better or more available for anyone. I will continue to fight to repeal and replace Obamacare with patient centered reforms that help the private sector—not the IRS—create more jobs."
The IRS document also noted that other tax law changes related to the stimulus require more workers, estimated at about 215 new employees.
It's not all tough news for taxpayers. The IRS regularly pays for its enforcement team and more when they collect taxes that companies and individuals try to skip out on. According to the budget documents, the IRS plans to get a big return on investment worth about $279 million by fiscal 2014.
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Here is 5 items that neither side has brought up
1. Rein In The Military Budget: Neither the president’s budget or the House CR cuts the overall level of defense spending. In fact, Defense Secretary Robert Gates’s request for the Pentagon budget is a whopping $553 billion — “the largest request ever” by the Pentagon and the largest adjusted for inflation since World War II. CAP Senior Fellow Lawrence Korb has laid out $1 trillion in defense reductions that can be made over the next 10 years by phasing out outdated programs and resizing our military. This comes out to roughly $100 billion a year, which is approximately how much funding is being proposed to be cut from the Pell Grant program.
2. Reduce Or Eliminate Subsidies To Big Agribusiness: The federal government “paid out a quarter of a trillion dollars in federal farm subsidies between 1995 and 2009.” “Just ten percent of America’s largest and richest farms collect almost three-fourths” of these subsidies. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) has proposed — as a part of her progressive deficit reduction plan — a fifty percent cut in federal direct support for agriculture, which would save $7.5 billion in 2015.
3. Reduce Or Eliminate Wasteful Tax Expenditures: The CAP paper “Cracking the Code: A Closer Look at Tax Expenditure Spending” notes that “special credits, deductions, exclusions, exemptions, and preferential tax rates provide more than $1 trillion in subsidies intended to support public objectives,” yet are ineffective and should be reduced or eliminated. Eliminating this tax expenditure could save $100 billion, for example.
4. Enact A Financial Transactions Tax: A “0.25 percent tax on trades of stocks, bonds, derivatives, and other Wall Street financial instruments” would do little to nothing to reduce commerce or productivity but would generate “between $50 billion and $150 billion annually,” according to a CAP analysis.
5. Empower Medicare To Negotiate For Lower Drug Prices: One of the main drivers of the growing U.S. budget deficit is health care costs. While there are a number of things that can be done to streamline the efficiency of our health care system, like introducing a public option or even moving towards a Medicare-for-all system, one policy option that would be very simple to enact and would not require any sort of increased spending or expansion of government would be to simply allow Medicare to use its bulk purchasing power to negotiate with drugmakers for lower prices. Rep. Peter Welch (D-VT) estimates that doing this could save as much as $156 billion over 10 years.
-------------------- Wise men learn more from fools than fools from the wise.
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