Monday, December 10, 2012

Democrats to the American People Let Them Eat Tax Increases

This all coming from a man who said September 2008, “I can make a firm pledge under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes.”
Not since Marie Antoinette was attributed to have sparked the French Revolution with the words, “Let them eat cake!” has a leader and his Party had such a callous opinion of the people, which they rule.

"Qu'ils mangent de la brioche!" supposedly spoken by the Queen upon learning that the peasants had no bread. Since brioche was enriched with butter and eggs, as opposed to ordinary bread, the quote supposedly would reflect the Queen’s obliviousness to the condition of the people.

This phrase came to be attributed to Marie Antoinette as her unpopularity increased in the final years before the outbreak of the French Revolution. During her marriage to Louis XVI, her perceived frivolousness and her very real extravagance were often cited as factors that only worsened France's dire financial straits.

In fact, many anti-monarchists were so convinced that it was Marie Antoinette who had single-handedly ruined France's finances that they nicknamed her Madame Déficit. –excerpted from Wikipedia



Democrats and their Leader president Barry Hussein Soetoro came into office in 2009 when America was borrowing heavily to pay it’s debts. It was also a time when America faced grave deficits. The president said as much himself. At the very start of his presidency Mr. Soetoro said America is out of money and American was at that time running deep deficits! (see 2:10min video)



Fiscal insolvency and huge deficits being the case, instead of attempting to reverse America’s economic plight Democrats and the President went on the greatest spending spree in the history of our nation. The president ran up trillion dollars on top of trillions of dollars of borrowed money deficits each year of his presidency thus dwarfing any economic failures that he might have inherited from the previous administration.

In fact the president’s unwillingness to curb spending has created the urgency we now face. Americans are tasked with the impossible as we attempt to figure out just how to pay for Democrats' and the president's trillions upon trillions of dollars of spent on government programs, bureaucracy, foreign money give-aways and entitlements. Those are the facts.

What is also true is had the president kept his 2008 election promises to cut the deficit in half, stopping government spending, there would be no Fiscal Cliff and no looming economic Armageddon. (see Had Obama Kept his Campaign Promises)

So how is all this government spending going to be paid for? It isn’t. First Democrats are going to get John Boehner their Republican colleagues to raise the debt limit, which means more spending. That's right, you read right! More spending! Then Democrats John Boehner and their Republican friends are going to raise taxes on all Americans, not just the Rich, as has been the false meme of the president and his Party. Raising taxes on the “Rich” is just a ploy to get all Americans acclimated to the idea of taxes getting raised. You don’t believe me.

Maybe you’ll believe former DNC Chairman, Democrat Presidential candidate and rabid Democrat Partisan Howard Dean. In a recent MSNBC interview, Dean confessed that the president’s “Tax the Rich” scheme still will not generate enough money in taxes to support Democrats’ unsustainable spending. Therefore everyone's taxes will have to be increased. (see 55sec video)



This is the “Let them eat tax increases” mentality that is prevalent among Democrats. Everyone forced to pay more taxes to support the out of control spending of the last four years that Democrat Progressivism has wrought on America. This not mentioning the projected spending that is to come in the next four years because of a Soetoro 2nd term.

What is coming is an avalanche of taxes headed the way of the American people, middle class Americans included. The tax increases so dubbed the fiscal cliff are as follows:

Since taking office three years ago, President Barack Obama has signed into law twenty-one new or higher taxes on the American people due to come into full play in January2013 and after the 2012 election is completed:

1. A 156 percent increase in the federal excise tax on tobacco: On February 4, 2009, just sixteen days into his Administration, Obama signed into law a 156 percent increase in the federal excise tax on tobacco, a hike of 61 cents per pack. The median income of smokers is just over $36,000 per year.

2. Obamacare Individual Mandate Excise Tax (takes effect in Jan 2014): Starting in 2014, anyone not buying “qualifying” health insurance must pay an income surtax

3. Obamacare Employer Mandate Tax (takes effect 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. 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). Bill: PPACA; Page: 345-346

Combined score of individual and employer mandate tax penalty: $65 billion/10 years

4. Obamacare Surtax on Investment Income (Tax hike of $123 billion/takes effect Jan. 2013): Creation of a new, 3.8 percent surtax on investment income earned in households making at least $250,000 ($200,000 single).

5. Obamacare Excise Tax on Comprehensive Health Insurance Plans (Tax hike of $32 bil/takes effect Jan. 2018): Starting in 2018, new 40 percent excise tax on “Cadillac” health insurance plans ($10,200 single/$27,500 family). Higher threshold ($11,500 single/$29,450 family) for early retirees and high-risk professions. CPI +1 percentage point indexed. Bill: PPACA; Page: 1,941-1,956

6. Obamacare Hike in Medicare Payroll Tax (Tax hike of $86.8 bil/takes effect Jan. 2013)

7. Obamacare Medicine Cabinet Tax (Tax hike of $5 bil/took effect Jan. 2011): Americans are 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). Bill: PPACA; Page: 1,957-1,959

8. Obamacare HSA Withdrawal Tax Hike (Tax hike of $1.4 bil/took effect 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. Bill: PPACA; Page: 1,959

9. Obamacare Flexible Spending Account Cap – aka, “Special Needs Kids Tax” (Tax hike of $13 bil/takes effect Jan. 2013): Imposes cap on FSAs of $2500 (currently unlimited). Indexed to inflation after 2013. 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. Bill: PPACA; Page: 2,388-2,389

10. Obamacare Tax on Medical Device Manufacturers (Tax hike of $20 bil/takes effect Jan. 2013): Medical device manufacturers employ 360,000 people in 6000 plants across the country. This law imposes a new 2.3% excise tax. Exempts items retailing for <$100. Bill: PPACA; Page: 1,980-1,986

11. Obamacare "Haircut" for Medical Itemized Deduction from 7.5% to 10% of AGI (Tax hike of $15.2 bil/takes effect 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. Waived for 65+ taxpayers in 2013-2016 only. Bill: PPACA; Page: 1,994-1,995

12. Obamacare Tax on Indoor Tanning Services (Tax hike of $2.7 billion/took effect July 2010): New 10 percent excise tax on Americans using indoor tanning salons. Bill: PPACA; Page: 2,397-2,399

13. Obamacare elimination of tax deduction for employer-provided retirement Rx drug coverage in coordination with Medicare Part D (Tax hike of $4.5 bil/takes effect Jan. 2013) Bill: PPACA; Page: 1,994

14. Obamacare Blue Cross/Blue Shield Tax Hike (Tax hike of $0.4 bil/took effect Jan. 1 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. Bill: PPACA; Page: 2,004

15. Obamacare Excise Tax on Charitable Hospitals (Min$/took effect immediately): $50,000 per hospital if they fail to meet new "community health assessment needs," "financial assistance," and "billing and collection" rules set by HHS. Bill: PPACA; Page: 1,961-1,971

16. Obamacare Tax on Innovator Drug Companies (Tax hike of $22.2 bil/took effect Jan. 2010): $2.3 billion annual tax on the industry imposed relative to share of sales made that year. Bill: PPACA; Page: 1,971-1,980

17. Obamacare Tax on Health Insurers (Tax hike of $60.1 bil/takes effect Jan. 2014): Annual tax on the industry imposed relative to health insurance premiums collected that year. Phases in gradually until 2018. Fully-imposed on firms with $50 million in profits. Bill: PPACA; Page: 1,986-1,993

18. Obamacare $500,000 Annual Executive Compensation Limit for Health Insurance Executives (Tax hike of $0.6 bil/takes effect Jan 2013). Bill: PPACA; Page: 1,995-2,000

19. Obamacare Employer Reporting of Insurance on W-2 ($min/takes effect Jan. 2012): Preamble to taxing health benefits on individual tax returns. Bill: PPACA; Page: 1,957

20. Obamacare “Black liquor” tax hike (Tax hike of $23.6 billion/took effect immediately). This is a tax increase on a type of bio-fuel. Bill: Reconciliation Act; Page: 105

21. Obamacare Codification of the “economic substance doctrine” (Tax hike of $4.5 billion/took effect immediately). 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. Bill: Reconciliation Act; Page: 108-113--points excerpted John Kartch and Ryan Ellis

There's no small wonder Justice John Roberts dubbed this monstrosity a tax! Or as I refer to it Obamatax!

The above taxes will be passed on to the middle class as higher medical cost. Moreover, a two-year-old payroll tax break is scheduled to lapse at the end of this year. That would increase Social Security taxes on everyone by 2 percentage points on wage income below $113,700. (The Middle Class)

So restating, the Fiscal Cliff (FC) is the scenario president Obama has set up by first allowing tax cuts starting in 2001 to expire. In addition to cuts expiring tax laws are set to change at midnight on December 31, 2012, which are the end of last year’s temporary payroll tax cuts (resulting in a 2% tax increase for workers). The FC is the end of certain tax breaks for businesses, shifts in the alternative minimum tax that would take a larger bite and the beginning of taxes related to President Obama’s health care law. At the same time, the spending cuts agreed upon as part of the debt ceiling deal of 2011 will begin to go into effect. According to Barron's, over 1,000 government programs - including the defense budget and Medicare are in line for "deep, automatic cuts."

This all coming from a man who said September 2008, “I can make a firm pledge under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes.”

That pledge, a lie. A lie on parallel with the Benghazi lies told by the Soetoro administration. The only difference is no one's died. Yet!

In the Orwellian world of Democrats higher taxes is merely more “revenue.” However, contrary to what the president and his surrogates are saying everyone who has a job and everyone who spends money will be paying more taxes not just the Rich. Taxes will be increasing on everyone no matter what a person’s tax rate is and no matter their income level again not just the so-called Rich.

Therefore when a Democrat or Republican says that more revenue is needed, what they are really says is let the American people eat tax increases to pay for the historic and extravagant spending of the Soetoro administration! Maria Antoinette would be so proud of her current Democrat American acolytes.

Indeed let them eat tax increases!