Freedom Line Blog

The Ways and Means Committee just sent out a summary of all the “revenue enhancements” (err … tax hikes) in the new Pelosi health care bill.

However, these revenue enhancements add up to only ~$565.5 billion, which falls far short of the bill’s $800-$900 billion price tag.  The list of “spending cuts” has not yet been released.

Here are some highlights from the summary:

• A $5 billion tax hike achieved through narrowing the definition of a qualified medical deduction.   Currently, individuals with medical expenses exceeding 7.5% of adjusted gross income can deduct those expenses for tax purposes, but the House bill severely limits this medical deduction, forcing taxpayers to pay more in out-of-pocket medical expenses.

• A $13.3 billion tax increase achieved through limiting Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA).  Under current law, individuals may contribute money to tax-free FSA’s, but the new bill limits this amount, thereby taxing income used for medical expenses.

• $460 billion tax hike on “high-earners.”

• $20 billion tax on the sale or lease of medical devices … because taxing artificial limbs and pacemakers is the “American Way.”

Click here for the Ways and Means summary.

1. Sec. 345. Income determinations. To determine income, the Health Choices Commissioner uses income data from the individual’s most recent tax return.
2. Sec. 501. Tax on individuals without acceptable health care coverage. Provides for a 2.5% additional tax on the modified adjusted gross income of an individual who does not obtain acceptable health coverage…
3. Sec. 511. This section also provides for an excise tax that applies to an offering employer if the employer fails to follow the rules governing an offer of coverage.
4. Sec. 512. Health care contributions of non-electing employers. Establishes a payroll tax of 8% of the wages that an employer pays to its employees for employers who choose not to offer coverage.
5. Sec.541. Disclosures to carryout health insurance exchange subsidies. Permits the Exchange to receive taxpayer return information from the Internal Revenue Service…
6. Sec. 551.  Surcharge on high income individuals. Establishes a 5.4 percent tax on modified adjusted gross income in excess of $1 million in the case of a joint return ($500,000 in the case of other returns).
7. Sec. 552. Excise tax on medical devices. Establishes a 2.5 percent excise tax on medical devices sold for use in the U.S.

Click here for the House health care bill.  Warning: it’s 1,990 pages.

Update: Here is a short 4-page propaganda summary from the House Ways and Means Committee.

A new poll released by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press found that Americans are becoming less enthusiastic about capping greenhouse gas emissions.  According to the survey, only 35% say global warming is a very serious problem.

Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) commented, “Perhaps the most interesting finding in this poll, aside from the precipitous drop in the number of Independents who believe global warming is a problem, is that the more Americans learn about cap-and-trade, the more they oppose cap-and-trade.”

Surprisingly, 55% of respondents said that they have heard “nothing at all” about cap-and-trade (legislation that would impose new energy taxes) proposals being debated in Congress.

For more info see here and here.

Call Congress at 202-224-3121 and urge your representatives to oppose new energy taxes.

It appears that Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus failed to get the White House memo about tax increases not being tax increases prior to drafting his latest version of ObamaCare.

During yesterday’s now-infamous exchange with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, President Obama insisted that the provision in Baucus’ bill that taxes families up to $3,800 annually for failing to get health insurance (aka the “individual mandate”) is not a tax increase and therefore does not violate his oft-repeated campaign promise not to raise taxes on the middle class.

Hat tip to Chris Frates and Mike Allen of Politico for pointing out that the first sentence of Page 29 of the Baucus bill reads: “The consequence for not maintaining insurance would be an excise tax.”

But that’s not all. According to Frates and Allen:

And the rest of the bill is clear that the Finance Committee does, in fact, consider it a tax: ‘The excise tax would be assessed through the tax code and applied as an additional amount of Federal tax owed.’

So who’s lying now?

Here’s a hint: The President and his Administration are trying the same sleight of hand trick with regard to Cap-and-Trade … oops, Cap-and-Tax.

The Tax that Isn’t a Tax Because President Obama Isn’t a Liar, and Even if He Were, He Wouldn’t Lie About Something Like Taxes on the Middle Class, Except to Stop Global Warming, Which May or May Not Be Real, Depending On Who Is Lying About that

Declan McCullagh reports at cbsnews.com:

The Obama administration has privately concluded that a cap and trade law would cost American taxpayers up to $200 billion a year, the equivalent of hiking personal income taxes by about 15 percent.

“A previously unreleased analysis prepared by the U.S. Department of Treasury says that the total in new taxes would be between $100 billion to $200 billion a year.  At the upper end of the administration’s estimate, the cost per American household would be an extra $1,761 a year.”

The documents were obtained under a Freedom of Information Act request from the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

Here’s a great video from our friends at Americans for Tax Reform: