Most tax professionals I know want a limited government and limited taxation. The measure that the House will likely approve tonight will be disastrous in so many ways.
First, there are twenty new taxes in the measure. I’ve talked about this before but an essential reality of taxes is that all taxes are passed on to consumers. If a business must pay $10 more for an item, you will be paying at least $10 more for that item.
The only way the measure scared up enough Democratic votes in Congress was using phony accounting. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) “scored” the measure as a deficit reducer. Well, the CBO scores only the first ten years of the measure. The taxes go into effect in the near future, while the health plan doesn’t go into effect for four years. With ten years of revenues and six years of costs, of course it reduces the deficits.
But for our children and grandchildren, the Obama Administration is mortgaging their future. This measure can’t be paid for, and added to the “Stimulus” legislation that passed last year the disaster is huge. Taxes will continue to go up, probably to confiscatory levels in high-tax states such as California and New York.
Governor Chris Christie (R-NJ) has the right idea. Let’s live within our means. Let’s cut spending, eliminate government programs to what’s necessary (rather than having what’s nice). We need to do this in Washington.
This health care bill spends money, creates bureaucracy (I’ve read that 16,000 new individuals will be needed at the IRS to enforce this) and will hurt American industry. More money will leave our pockets for taxes to fund this bureaucracy–funding that’s not acknowledged in the measure.
Unfortunately, the current Administration has absolutely no desire to limit government spending. There’s an option, though, and it comes as we vote later this year for our Representatives and Senators. Ask yourself if the individuals you are voting for have your fiscal future in mind. A good proxy for this is how they voted on health care (assuming they are in Washington today). In June (for California) and in November (for the country) we’ll have an option to let Congress know what they should be doing by electing individuals who understand what limited government means.