WSJ: ObamaCare Includes “Largest Tax Increase For Health Care In History”
Ok, who didn’t expect this? Anyone? Anyone? No? (emphasis is mine)
Electing an outrageously unqualified community activist who has spent his entire life surrounded by communists would result in lower taxes for the vast majority of Americans, we were repeatedly and emphatically promised. But the hype that installed our socialist kakistocracy is over. Now come the tax hikes:
The White House’s new health-care proposal promises the "largest middle class tax cut for health care in history," which is a creative way of describing a vast taxpayer-subsidized insurance entitlement. Naturally, the fine print goes on to describe one of the largest tax increases for health care in history, too.
War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength. Tax hikes are tax cuts.
This new ObamaCare bargain would for the first time apply the 2.9% Medicare payroll tax to "interest, dividends, annuities, royalties and rents," so-called passive income that we are told includes capital gains, though the latter wasn’t explicitly mentioned in the proposal. This antigrowth investment tax would apply to singles earning more than $200,000 and joint filers over $250,000 and comes on top of the Senate’s 0.9-percentage-point increase in the payroll tax, which would bring the combined employee-employer share to 3.8%.
The rate hike on investment income would presumably take effect at the same time the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts are due to expire next year, bringing the top rate to 22.9% as the current top capital gains rate would also rise to 20% from 15%. That’s a 52% jump…
This will be sold in the name of "fairness," if anyone else in the press corps notices, but the worst implications are economic. The 0.9% increase is another tax on job creation, though Democrats claim they want more jobs. The devious 2.9% hike on investment income will raise the cost of capital, though Democrats claim to want more capital investment. Sometimes we wonder if Democrats even listen to their own rhetoric, or if they assume voters are too dumb to notice their contradictions.
Are you Freaking Stupid? 