SCOTUS says Obamacare is just a tax. Here’s Obamacare’s 21 Taxes!

SCOTUS says Obamacare is just a tax. Here’s Obamacare’s 21 Taxes!

Posted on June 29, 2012 by Dr. Eowyn, Fellowship of the minds, 6/29/12

“The chief justice of the United States Supreme Court, John Roberts, said [about Obamacare], ‘It is not our job to protect the people from the consequences of their political choices.’ Not our job…. So Obamacare is nothing more than the largest tax increase in the history of the world…. We have the biggest tax increase in the history of the world right in the middle of one of this country’s worst recessions. In fact, as the vice president said yesterday, a depression for millions of Americans.” -Rush Limbaugh, June 28, 2012

The Supreme Court’s narrow 5-4 ruling on Obamacare effectively puts its seal of approval on the biggest tax increase in most Americans’ lifetime.

But as The Washington Times notes, on the campaign trail four years ago and since taking office, none other than Obama himself has said again and again that middle-class families will not see their taxes rise “a single dime” under his presidency.

The high court’s ruling leaves in place 21 tax increases in the health care law costing more than $675 billion over the next 10 years, according to the House Ways and Means Committee. Those 21 tax increases are:

1. A 156% increase in the federal excise tax on tobacco
2. Obamacare Individual Mandate Excise Tax
3. Obamacare Employer Mandate Tax
4. Obamacare Surtax on Investment Income
5. Obamacare Excise Tax on Comprehensive Health Insurance Plans
6. Obamacare Hike in Medicare Payroll Tax
7. Obamacare Medicine Cabinet Tax
8. Obamacare HSA Withdrawal Tax Hike
9. Obamacare Flexible Spending Account Cap – aka “Special Needs Kids Tax”
10. Obamacare Tax on Medical Device Manufacturers
11. Obamacare “Haircut” for Medical Itemized Deduction from 7.5% to 10% of AGI
12. Obamacare Tax on Indoor Tanning Services
13. Obamacare elimination of tax deduction for employer-provided retirement Rx drug coverage in coordination with Medicare Part D
14. Obamacare Blue Cross/Blue Shield Tax Hike
15. Obamacare Excise Tax on Charitable Hospitals
16. Obamacare Tax on Innovator Drug Companies
17. Obamacare Tax on Health Insurers
18. Obamacare $500,000 Annual Executive Compensation Limit for Health Insurance Executives
19. Obamacare Employer Reporting of Insurance on W-2
20. Obamacare “Black liquor” tax hike
21. Obamacare Codification of the “economic substance doctrine”

For full details on each tax, go to Americans for Tax Reform.

Twelve of the Obamacare tax hikes will affect families earning less than $250,000 per year, including a “Cadillac tax” on high-cost insurance plans, a tax on insurance providers and an excise tax on medical-device manufacturers.

You and I both know that medical insurance providers are not fools: They will simply pass the tax onto the insured, which means high-, middle-, and low-income Americans. All of which, of course, is a clear violation of Obama’s pledge to avoid tax hikes on low- and middle-income taxpayers.