ObamaCare could make you think twice about saying ‘I do’

The new tax on investors in the health care bill has been increased
from 2.9 percent to 3.8 percent, but only a few media outlets like
Bloomberg and Business Week are reporting it.

As the
Washington Times earlier noted, ObamaCare discriminates against married
people, containing massive marriage penalties. If you get married, your
income will be hit by ObamaCare’s increased tax rates a lot faster than
if you just live together without getting married. Under the bill, you
will give up your right to federal health care subsidies at a lower
income level if you are married than if you are an unmarried couple.
For many “low-income and middle-income couples, it could mean a hike of
$2,000 or more in annual insurance premiums the moment they say ‘I
do.’” (While Obama won the 2008 election, he narrowly lost among
married people.) The new tax on investors is a classic example of the
marriage penalty, since it kicks in at $200,000 if you are single —
that is, $400,000 for an unmarried couple — but only $250,000 for a
married couple.

Obamacare would also impose many
middle-class tax increases, such as taxes on uninsured individuals, on
cosmetic surgery, on medical devices, and on certain health-care plans.

Governors
of both political parties assail the health care bill as a job-killer
that will drive up state deficits, increase taxes, and harm the
economy. The governors of New York and California warned that “their
states will be crushed by billions in new costs.”

Tax experts say it would dangerously expand the power and responsibilities of the IRS.

The Washington Post falsely claims that the CBO says the health care bill will save $1.2 trillion over its second decade, but the CBO says the figure is not from it (it’s from Congressional Democrats). Amazingly, the CBO,
under orders from Democratic leaders, has understated the bill’s cost
for the first decade by including the present fiscal year — in which
Obamacare is not yet law and thus has no costs — while excluding its
last year from cost calculations. The result was to reduce the
projected price tag for the bill from $1.2 trillion to $940 billion.

While the CBO
has scored the health care bill as not increasing the federal deficit,
thanks to the many tax increases in the bill, it has done so only by
accepting many accounting gimmicks that even pro-Obama journalists have
admitted conceal the bill’s enormous cost and the fact that it will
massively increase the deficit. The New York Times‘ David Brooks, once
a staunch Obama supporter, now says the bill’s drafters were “corrupted
by power” and calls arguments for the bill “unbelievable” and “insane.”
The Atlantic’s Megan McArdle, who also voted for Obama, says that the
bill “is a fiscal disaster waiting to happen.”

The
Congressional Budget Office, which would not question Obama’s gimmicks
to lowball the cost of his health care plan, nevertheless admits that
“President Obama’s policies would add more than $9.7 trillion to the
national debt over the next decade.”

There are
$3,000,000,000,000 in tax increases in Obama’s budget. But he’s
spending money at such a furious pace that the deficit will skyrocket
anyway: “The president’s budget would borrow 42 cents for each dollar
spent in 2010,” and “double the national debt over the next decade.”
Obama recently ran up the largest budget deficit in history, by a huge
margin.

ObamaCare will reduce medical innovation, raise
taxes, drive up insurance premiums, and break campaign promises. It
would cut the quality of care, while imposing restrictions that failed
when tried at the state level. It ignores advice from experts about how
to cut costs.

A retired federal judge says that the tactic
congressional leaders are using to rush Obamacare into law violates
Supreme Court rulings and the Constitution.