ObamaCare Money Grab: ‘Taxing Your Mere Existence,’ by William A. Jacobson
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on August 19, 2009
With the ObamaCare plan still being drafted, many Americans are concerned about the ramifications of all the new taxes, mandates, and penalties it contains.
And they should be VERY concerned. Democrats are keeping mum about the tax-crushing details.
The town hall meetings and national tea parties attended by throngs of citizens across the country are voicing their fierce opposition to the government-run health plan. Washington officials, such as Democrat Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, want the opposition silenced and to meekly accept the new, still-not-completed plan without question. Democrats are growing wearing of working with Republicans and have said this week that they intend to ram it through, come heck or high water, regardless of the outcry from a majority of Americans who do not want it.
Some Americans, though, are still sitting on the fence. They aren’t really sure why the new plan would be so bad and are stymied by the grassroots groups’ passion for denouncing it. Why are they giving up their weekends, all their free time, taking time off from work, to protest this? Free health care from Obama? Socialized health care? What’s so wrong with that?
Plenty.
Here’s an exceptional analysis and commentary on the ObamaCare money-grab taxation proposal by William A. Jacobson at Legal Insurrection:
Taxing Your Mere Existence
August 17, 2009, by Legal Insurrection
As set forth in my prior post, IRS The New Health Care Enforcer, the new tax provisions in the Senate and House draft health care bills tax people for failing to obtain acceptable health coverage. These taxes are crucial to implementing a health care mandate (which Barack Obama said during the primary he was against) whereby the power to tax compels people to obtain coverage.
This tax, though, is unlike any other tax. Normally, the federal government taxes income, the purchase and sale of goods and services, and other economic behavior. To the extent the tax laws address non-economic behavior, i.e., one’s mere existence, those laws grant credits or deductions (for example, for a dependent).
I am aware of no other tax resulting from one’s failure to engage in economic activity. Under these draft bills, if you exist, the government taxes you unless you engage in economic activity (and the government may tax that activity as well, as in the case of expensive employer-provided health care plans).
Even the per capita taxes which exist in some states or municipalities do not tax the failure to engage in economic behavior; each person pays the same tax regardless of what they do or do not do.
What a bizarre concept is a tax to enforce a health care mandate. If you buy a computer at a store, you expect to pay a sales tax; but do you expect to pay the tax for not buying a computer? If you earn income at a job, you expect to pay taxes on the income; but do you expect to pay taxes for not working?
This is not strictly a constitutional issue. The prevailing view seems to be that such a tax would pass constitutional muster, although there certainly are arguments to the contrary.
Rather, this is a political issue. Does the American public truly understand the impact of allowing the federal government to tax individuals based on what such individuals do not do, the equivalent of a tax on one’s mere existence?
Taxing inaction destroys our right to be left alone, which is one of the foundations of liberty in this country. The implications of such a tax as a tool of political coercion truly are revolutionary.
Tell me again… why do members of Congress not want to give up their own taxpayer-funded “platinum deluxe” health care plan and not want to be enrolled in THIS hell-hole of a health plan?
No wonder Democrat leaders are hiding out from their constituents…
Additional ObamaCare and townhall info:
Gateway Pundit: Liberals “Tired of Compromise” …Ready to Ram Obamacare Down America’s Throat
QandO: The Political Hazards Of “Health Care Reform” and Skeptical Americans Continue To Say No To Democratic Health Care Plan
GayPatriot: Rep. Massa To His Constituents: Drop Dead and Ma’am Boxer has time for a book signing, but “nothing scheduled” on health care reform
Real Clear Politics: Dem Congressman: Town Hall Protesters Are “Political Terrorist[s]“
New York Times: Democrats Seem Set to Go It Alone on a Health Bill
Evan Sayet, Big Hollywood: My Day At the Doctor
Atlas Shrugs: Obama/Democrats to Americans: Drop Dead
Alberto de la Cruz, Babalú Blog, an island on the net without a bearded dictator: The limp
Yid with Lid: Its WAR ON AMERICA !! Democrats To Shove Obamacare Down Our Throats
Yahoo, Reuters: Liberal Democrats unhappy with healthcare shift
GOP Counterculture: I’m mad as hell.
Angry Californian: Reality Check Website: Amateur Night at the White House
American Elephant: Obamacare Preview 2: Canadian System Cuts Thousands of Surgeries Due to Underfunding
The Vancouver Sun: Thousands of surgeries may be cut in Metro Vancouver due to government underfunding, leaked paper
Right Angles: Score One for Sarah
Wake Up Black America: Did Sarah Palin force the Senate to drop the “end of life” provision?
Behind Blue Lines: How About Those “Death Panels”?
VotingFemale Speaks!: Obama v Palin; Obama Blinks; Ready to drop ‘Public Option’; Way to Go Sarah! and Obama: Shut Up or ELSE; Can you spell Tyranny?
Hip Hop Republican: What is $1 Trillion? About 1/10 of America’s Growing Debt
Sister Toldjah: David Axelturf’s major ObamaCare conflict of interest
Frugal Café Blog Zone: “You Can Bet Our Astro-Turf…” San Francisco Tea Party Against Health Care (video) and San Francisco’s Pelosi, Feinstein, Boxer Refuse to Host ObamaCare Town Hall Meetings… Citizens Will Hold Their Own Mock Town Hall Meeting and Candle Vigil (UPDATE: Boxer’s Book Tour) and Dr. Obama’s in the House: I’m Not a Doctor, but I Play One on TV (video) and Phony-Baloney Democrat Astro-Turfing: Dems Hiring Fake ObamaCare Protesters from Ads Placed on Craigs List; UPDATE, Little Girl with Political Connections to POTUS? and Michelle Obama’s Shady Involvement in Chicago Hospital’s “Patient Dumping” of the Poor Being Investigated and “War on Senior Citizens”: Mark Levin Interviews Dr. Betsy McCaughey on ObamaCare Details
Pirates! Man Your Women: Cowards
Hot Air: Can Congress force me to buy health insurance?
Democrat: I don’t care what my constituents think, I’m voting for single-payer and Rasmussen: 54% would prefer no bill to current ObamaCare proposals and Obama: Government health care will be like, um, the post office and Obama: Let’s work together to destroy American health care by year’s end
The Sundries Shack: Live Free or Don’t. Whatever.
The Substratum: Obama Tries To Piss On The Public And Tell Us Its Raining
American Thinker: Orthopedic Surgeons respond to Obama on amputation comment and Back to ACORN General Hospital and Michelle Obama’s Patient-Dumping Scheme
Delaware Online: Lawmakers opt out of shouting matches
Moe Lane: Rep. Bishop, Boswell having health care meetings allllll the way over *there*
Ztower: Seems Sarah Palin Was Right…President Obama’s Appointee, Ezekiel Emanuel, Yes – Rahm’s Brother, Thinks Doctors Take The Hippocratic Oath Too Seriously And Medical Care Should Be Reserved For The “Non-Disabled.” Well, Mr. President?
El Campeador’s Weblog: Reader Report from San Francisco Rally Against Obamacare…LOOK! More “uncivil” MOBSTERS Madame’s Boxer and Pelosi. Madame’s meant in the most “uncivil” way….
The American Spectator: Gallup Finds Independents Sympathize With Protesters
The Substratum: White House Using Twitter and Facebook To Spread Lies About ObamaCare And What You Can Do About It – New Petition From ACLJ
Gateway Pundit: Liberals “Tired of Compromise” …Ready to Ram Obamacare Down America’s Throat
Michelle Malkin: Look who’s hijacking 9/11 and SEIU Watch: Obama to rouse Purple Army in special conference call and Axelrod’s profits: Uh, who’s on the take from the drug lobby again?!?! and Death panels? What death panels? Oh, those death panels and Gaffetastic: D’ohbama’s post office blunder and Time to ration health care for illegal aliens and Democrat Rep. Betsy Markey, etiquette czarina and Profile in congressional cowardice and White House public option ploy: A trial balloon, not a white flag and Another Democrat takes refuge at a union headquarters and Congressional Fugitive Watch: Has your lawmaker absconded today? and Pretty sneaky, Congresswoman Bean and Winds of change in San Francisco and Wild Misrepresentation Watch: Obama lies about AARP endorsement
Gathering of Eagles: NY: Healthcare for Illegal Immigrants
Libertarian Humor: This Guy Dislikes Obama A Lot More Than I Do
About the author
There are so many issues at stake we have to choose our battles I guess. My first thought was that if the government wanted everyone to have health insurance then they should offer incentives to purchase your own plan. Makes sense doesn’t it? How about a 100 percent deduction or MORE for all money paid to procure a health insurance plan? Doesn’t that make sense? A person makes $100,000 dollars a year, spends $15,000 a year for a health insurance plan then his adjusted income is $85,000 OR TWICE THAT to $70,000! If a person has a pre-existing condition and pays double or triple then the government can cover that as well… now this same person has an income of $40,000 … or $0.00 after adjusting for what he or she pays in insurance for health coverage. That’s why it has always been important to tax everyone, regardless of their income … but fairly so as not to discourage them from making more money.
People need a stake in the outcome of these programs or they’ll continue to vote for others to take care of them. A straight tax where someone makes $20,000 a year would result in “x” after deducting what they paid for health insurance. I know of people that worked for nothing so that the business they worked for paid for their insurance. The same goes for life insurance. If a citizen takes care of his family’s security by paying life insurance every year it should be deducted one hundred percent. It helps us all not to add another burden on society if he or she dies and leaves his family dependent on government. There are absolutely things the government can do for its people to reform the situation if they had the will to do it. Tort reform might be a start. Increasing competition might also reduce costs. Immigration reform? Repealing laws that encourage illegal immigration coverage so that American citizens don’t pay exponentially for insurance might help. Until we see these types of things, we don’t believe a single word being said to us.