There’s maybe 15 new taxes in Senator Harry Reid’s health care plan, including new taxes on:
- “Cadillac plans” (that is expensive, not necessarily rich-benefit plans);
- Medical devices and cosmetic surgery (oops, there went the Hollywood vote);
- Drug companies, health insurers and insurance executives;
- New limits on contributions to flexible spending accounts and increased penalties on non-qualified health savings account expenses;
- Individuals who don’t buy and employers who don’t provide health insurance;
- And, of course, high-income earners, and much more.
As if this weren’t enough, Representative David Obey (D-WI), the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, is claiming that if President Obama increases the troops in Afghanistan, Obey will demand a new tax to pay for the increase, a “war surtax.” Others are joining Obey’s demand.
Normally, adopting pro-growth policies will lift economic activity, and therefore government revenues, which allows the government to finance certain limited military actions and other programs without busting the budget.
But this president has consistently opposed adopting policies that would encourage risk taking and economic investment. For him economic investment is, well, a trillion-dollar-plus health care bill and thousands of new government employees.
And if Congress refuses to adopt policies that will increase economic growth and revenues, it will have to make up the difference — or borrow or print the money (a lot of that going on, too). And the biggest problem is that the proposed taxes will stifle economic growth even more.
Every now and then the electorate gets a little cranky—usually for good reason—and decides to "throw the bums out."
That’s what happened in the U.S. House and Senate in 2006 and in the White House in 2008. Recognizing that Republicans had broken their promise to keep government spending in check, the public must have looked at the Democrats and said, “How much worse could they be?”
Well, we’re quickly finding out.