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As we prepare for the final round of debate over health reform, perhaps the most contentious issue will be financing. Both the Senate and House agree that most of the financing for reform should come from scaling back overpayments to Medicare insurers and providers, as well as excise taxes on some of the sectors that will most benefit from 30 million newly insured consumers. But the two houses remain apart on where to find the remaining dollars. In the Senate, the gap is closed by relying on the "Cadillac tax," a 40 percent assessment on insurance plans with premiums of...

Last night’s cloture vote on the Obama-Reid Big Government Healthcare Bill brought an end to any discussion of fiscal conservative or “moderate” Democrats. Two so-called moderate Democrats Ben Nelson and Arlen Specter betrayed taxpayers by violating their Taxpayer Protection Pledges and voting along with 58 other Democrats in support of the healthcare bill. (For a comprehensive list of all the tax hikes in this bill, click here.) They were the only remaining Democrat Pledge Signers not to have violated their Pledges on at least one occasion. House Democrats including Brad Ellsworth, Ben Chandler, Rob Andrews, and Gene Taylor have all...

WHEELING -- Local tanning salon operators are upset over a last minute tax on their business in the health care reform bill. If the legislation passes in its current form, artificial sun worshipers would pay 10 percent more for a trip to the tanning beds.

Obama's Planned 400% Excise Rip Off Tax Politics / US Politics Dec 21, 2009 - 05:09 AM By: Michael_S_Rozeff The Wall Street Journal brings more bad news. A headline reads "Lawmakers Weigh a Wall Street Tax." The first mention of this was in October. The proposal has not died as Congress seeks new ways to finance its profligate spending. Both houses are considering legislation. The tax would fall on financial exchanges of all kinds. It is not a tax on Wall Street. It is a tax on anyone who buys and sells securities. James Tobin originated the notion in the...

Coca-Cola Warns Green Taxes Could Cut Its Profits By 50% Coca-Cola and Unilever have warned that their profits could halve over the next decade unless they reduce their emissions, as business leaders in Copenhagen called for a global fixed price on carbon dioxide. By Rowena Mason Published: 7:09PM GMT 11 Dec 2009 Coca-Cola announced that it would reduce the carbon footprint of its supply chains Photo: Reuters The two companies acknowledged that green taxes and regulation would cause profits to fall 47pc by 2018 in the consumer goods sector if no effective action was taken. Unilever and Coca-Cola both announced...

(CNSNews.com) – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) endorsed the idea of a “global” tax on stock trades and other financial transactions, saying the estimated $150 billion in annual revenue from such a tax could be used to help fund more stimulus spending. At her weekly press briefing on Thursday, Pelosi said the financial transactions tax (HR4191) currently before Congress would have to be made “global” to keep U.S. investors from taking their business overseas and out of taxable reach. The House speaker said that a transaction tax could be imposed in conjunction with congressional efforts to divert funds from the...

The House voted Thursday to permanently extend a 45 percent inheritance tax on estates larger than $3.5 million, canceling a one-year repeal of the tax set to begin next month. A similar effort is afoot in the Senate, but the health care debate there could preclude action on the estate tax before Congress breaks later this month for holidays. There are also disagreements among senators over the tax rate and the size of estates that should be exempt, further clouding the bill's prospects. Lawmakers, however, don't want to delay action until next year because they are wary of enacting retroactive...

The House votes 224-199 to cancel a one-year repeal of the estate tax, set to begin next month, and instead permanently extends the current tax, with a top rate of 45 percent on estates larger than $3.5 million.

Did I just see a trail balloon launched? Over at a Wall Street Journal conference, Christina Romer, chairman of President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers had this to say about deficit reduction: But the chairman of the president’s Council of Economic Advisers admitted that health reform and a growing economy isn’t enough to bring down the deficit. She did mention one other place that revenue could come from: letting the Bush tax cuts expire. Me: Since Obama already wants to get rid of the income and capital gains tax cuts for wealthier Americans that expire at the end of 2010,...

Buried in this Friday story on Obama's future plans is a curious statement, attributed to White House Budget Director Peter Orszag, which didn't get nearly enough attention: Orszag has said the spending blueprint, for the budget year that begins Oct. 1, 2010, would put the nation "back on a fiscally sustainable path" and suggested it would include a mix of spending cuts and new revenue-producing measures. "New revenue-producing measures." In other words, more tax increases -- increases beyond the dozen or so that are already planned in the health care reform package. President Obama's advisors understand that they have to...

House Democrats are funding their new entitlement with a 5.4% surtax on incomes above $500,000 for individuals and above $1 million for joint filers. The surcharge is intended to snag the greatest number of taxpayers to raise some $460.5 billion, and so the House has written it to apply to modified adjusted gross income. That means it includes both capital gains and dividends. That surtax takes effect on January 1, 2011, or the day the Bush tax rates of 2001 and 2003 expire. Today’s capital gains tax rate of 15% would bounce back to 20% because of the Bush repeal...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Majority Leader Harry Reid is considering a plan for higher payroll taxes on the upper-income earners to help finance health care legislation he intends to introduce in the Senate in the next several days, numerous Democratic officials said Wednesday. These officials said one of the options Reid has had under review would raise the payroll tax that goes to Medicare, but only on income above $250,000 a year. Current law sets the tax at 1.45 percent of income, an amount matched by employers.

In a few years France's Taxes will look comparatively low and their government more free than ours.

President Obama says his health-care overhaul -- which squeaked through the House last night -- won't hurt a bit, but taxpayers are going to feel it in their wallet. The $1.2 trillion plan, which passed by a razor-thin 220 to 215, imposes new tax surcharges on Americans who fail to buy insurance as well as businesses that don't provide coverage to their employees. One Republican joined 219 Democrats in voting for the measure in the super-tight vote -- just barely more than the 218 members required to pass it. The legislation, which features a government-run insurance option for people who...

... [T]he signature domestic issue in President Obama’s first year in office — health care reform — is shaping up to be the antithesis of President Reagan’s supply-side economics. The starting point for Ronald Reagan was the idea that people respond to incentives. The incentives that he most worried about were those provided by the tax system. According to his budget director, David A. Stockman, Mr. Reagan would regale the staff with stories of how he, as an actor, used to alter his work schedule in response to the tax code. “You could only make four pictures, and then you...

TRENTON, N.J. — Johnson & Johnson executives said Tuesday a proposed tax on medical device makers, part of the health care reform package moving in the Senate, is too high and could cost jobs in the industry. "We think that the $4 billion tax that they're referring to is unreasonable," J&J Chief Financial Officer Dominic Caruso told The Associated Press in an interview. "We believe it's at least twice what it ought to be." Caruso spoke after New Brunswick, N.J.-based J&J reported its third-quarter earnings, which included a tiny profit increase and sales declines in every division except medical devices,...

Whether or not you now have health insurance, Obama’s healthcare bill will cost you dearly. If you don’t have insurance, you will be required to buy it. The legislation specifies how much you will have to pay for the coverage before any subsidy kicks in. All during the campaign, Obama kept speaking about affordable coverage. Now it appears that his definition of “affordable” might be a bit elastic. * If your household income is $66,000 a year, slightly above the national average, Obama’s healthcare bill will require you to spend 12 percent of your income — about $8,000 a year...

Sen. Max Baucus' health care bill consists of a dog's breakfast of taxes after taxes after more taxes. With so much new pressure being put on taxpayers, you might think senators would jump at the chance to find some savings that could eliminate the need for some of the tax increases. Think again. Too many senators are in the hip pocket of the wealthy plaintiffs' lawyers for them to consider any savings that would diminish the lawyers' jackpots. On Oct. 9, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that lawsuit reforms could save the government about $54 billion in health care costs...

The former CBO director, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, warns today on the effect ObamaCare will have on our economy and health care. These facts should be painfully obvious to those with even one iota of common sense. This bill will lead to a huge middle class tax increase: Remember when health-care reform was supposed to make life better for the middle class? That dream began to unravel this past summer when Congress proposed a bill that failed to include any competition-based reforms that would actually bend the curve of health-care costs. It fell apart completely when Democrats began papering over the gaping...

Remember when health-care reform was supposed to make life better for the middle class? That dream began to unravel this past summer when Congress proposed a bill that failed to include any competition-based reforms that would actually bend the curve of health-care costs. It fell apart completely when Democrats began papering over the gaping holes their plan would rip in the federal budget. As it now stands, the plan proposed by Democrats and the Obama administration would not only fail to reduce the cost burden on middle-class families, it would make that burden significantly worse. Consider the bill put forward...

Candor about taxes is rare in Washington, so when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi admits that Democrats may have to impose a huge new tax on the middle class to fund their spending ambitions, believe her. Speaking with PBS's Charlie Rose on Monday, Mrs. Pelosi mused publicly about the rising possibility of enacting a value-added tax, or VAT, as part of broader tax reform. "Somewhere along the way, a value-added tax plays into this," she said. "Of course, we want to take down the health-care cost, that's one part of it. But in the scheme of things, I think it's fair...

The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday began collecting millions in fees from the nation's tobacco companies to help fund the agency's newly granted authority to regulate the industry. The user fees, which will be collected quarterly, are based on each company's share of the U.S. tobacco market. The FDA will collect about $23 million for fiscal 2009. That will rise to $235 million in 2010 and grow to $712 million by 2019. The FDA would not disclose the assessments for specific companies. Stifel, Nicolaus & Co. analyst Christopher Growe said in a note to investors that Richmond, Va.-based Altria...

Coke, bottler launching campaign against soda tax Tue Sep 29, 2009 7:27pm EDT NEW YORK (Reuters) - Coca-Cola Co and its largest independent bottler, Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc, are mounting a campaign against a possible U.S. tax on soft drinks. In addition to a print and digital ad campaign in seven key U.S. markets including Washington, D.C., New York and Los Angeles, the effort will include public relations, speaking engagements and education designed to emphasize to consumers the benefits of a balanced diet and lifestyle that includes exercise. "Clearly, the threat of a soft drink tax demonstrates the need to better...

Over four days and three late nights of meetings, Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee have largely stood up to Republicans’ attacks on a proposal to overhaul the health care system. But behind the scenes and away from the C-Span cameras, their united front has given way to intraparty tensions, not just in the committee but in Congress generally. ... Senate Democrats have a filibuster-proof majority of 60 lawmakers. But a number of them are centrists, and the party cannot afford many defections, given Republicans’ nearly unanimous opposition. Further, seeking a semblance of bipartisanship, the White House still wants Ms....

John Podesta compared the nation’s current budget crisis to the situation former President Bill Clinton faced in 1993 and said some form of a value-added tax is “more plausible today than it ever has been.” “There’s going to have to be revenue in this budget,” said Podesta, Clinton’s former chief of staff and co-chairman of President Barack Obama’s transition team, said in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital with Al Hunt,” airing today.

Without regard to one's views about the health care legislation promoted by President Obama and currently being redrafted by Sen. Max Baucus, everyone is entitled to expect that the task will be carried out with competence and integrity — also with dignity and a high regard for the intelligence of the American people. Further, even if everyone agreed that the proposed federal interventions in health care were consistent with "best medical practice" and produced the best possible medical care at the least price, all these federal actions would still have to meet constitutional standards. The controversial tax that both Obama...

House Democrats are considering an insurance tax to help pay for their health care overhaul plan, even though such a funding scheme is bitterly opposed by labor unions that are among the party's most loyal constituencies. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Friday a tax on high-cost health insurance plans is "under consideration" as Democrats search for consensus within their ranks before taking a bill to the House floor later this fall. "We just have to see how much money we need for what," Pelosi said. "And if we're taking the bill down in cost, there are other provisions in...

This should go VIRAL!

Labor unions and some Democrats are pushing to scale back a proposal in the latest version of Senate health-overhaul legislation that would tax generous insurance plans. A sweeping proposal to fix the health system, unveiled this week by Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D., Mont.), would impose a 35% tax on high-dollar health plans offered by insurers. The tax on insurers is the biggest revenue generator for a plan that is expected to cost about $774 billion over 10 years. The new tax is intended to target "Cadillac" plans offered to wealthy individuals. It would fall on plans valued at...

Health care bill squeezes the middle class By Juanita Thouin At a press conference held after his town hall meeting in Murfreesboro last month, Congressman Bart Gordon was asked if he could say with certainty that, under H.R. 3200, citizens with pre-existing health conditions and income above a certain poverty level would have their health insurance premiums capped. Gordon responded, “I cannot.” H.R. 3200 is the health care reform bill now under consideration in the House of Representatives. It contains no language stipulating premium caps for families earning more than 400 percent above the federal poverty level. This means that...

(CNSNews.com) - Despite a still-lagging U.S. economy and rising unemployment rate, House Democrats announced late yesterday that they will seek a massive increase in federal income taxes to help pay for the national health-care reform proposal that President Obama is urging Congress to enact this summer. House Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel (D.-N.Y.)revealed late Friday afternoon that House Democrats will seek to increase income taxes by $540 billion. The move, which had been discussed earlier in the week by House Democrats, broke in an Associated Press story that was published at 4:14 PM Eastern Daylight time on Friday afternoon...

Here is video of Newt Gingrich on Meet the Press today talking about President Obama's pledge not to add one dime to the deficit with his Health Care legislation. Gingrich said Obama is going to take $200 billion away from Medicare Advantage in order to try and pay for his plan. But Gingrich said American know instinctively that you cannot undertake a massive Government Program like Obama is suggesting without ballooning the deficit, or without "massive tax increases," which would further deepen the recession. Gingrich is right on the mark here. Republicans need to keep hammering on how Obama can...

As the recession and bailout have pushed this year's federal budget deficit to an unheard-of $1.6 trillion, an unpleasant reality has dawned: Taxes are going up. The only questions are when, how much, and for whom? The answers depend on the shifting sands of wealth politics and the scope of health-care revision. "But everybody thinks that by 2011 tax rates will be higher, at least for those with higher incomes," says Thomas Ochsenschlager, a tax official at the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

Warren Buffett, the renowned investor and the world’s second richest man, told Senate Democrats that wealthy Americans need to pay higher taxes, giving Democrats something to mull as they address healthcare reform and soaring federal deficits. Senate Democrats met with Buffett for more than an hour over lunch Thursday, peppering him with questions about the economy, said lawmakers in attendance. “He said rich people are not paying enough taxes,” said Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.). “It was interesting to see someone who is such an aggressive capitalist, who believes so much in our capitalist system, saying we’ve got the scales way...

...arlier this month the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office delivered its latest revenue-raising options for Senate and House consideration as they write this fall's tax and budget legislation. Tucked away in the report are several incendiary plans that could — if adopted — cost homeowners billions of dollars. Though not formal legislative proposals, the CBO's options represent a handy fiscal menu for legislators to pick and choose from to reduce the deficit — now at unprecedented levels — or to pay for new programs they might want to advance. Tops on the CBO's hit list for housing: Slash deductions for homeowner...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- A $9 trillion federal deficit over 10 years may be too hard to comprehend. But this part is easy: Such unwieldy amounts of debt could have an impact on Americans' bottom line one way or the other -- if not tomorrow, then the day after. The U.S. government has been spending a great deal more than it has been taking in, and it is on track to do so well beyond the next 10 years. It has been borrowing money to make all that spending possible and it has to pay the money back with interest....

Imagine an America where a gallon of gas costs you more than $7.00. An America where your electricity bills have doubled or tripled or worse. An America where our producers of goods and services are punished by crushing new fees, taxes, and regulations, causing prices to rise for everything you buy and costing you your job. And then imagine the rest of the world carrying on business as usual, smugly watching America's decline and fall from economic power. Now, try to imagine you're happy about all this. Seriously. Imagine this nightmarish new America is the fulfillment of your greatest dreams....

A surcharge on cigarettes has helped curb smoking, but will the same tactic work to fight obesity? "Sin taxes" on cigarettes have turned out to be the most effective weapon in the campaign to reduce smoking. Why not try it on Flamin' Hot Cheetos, vanilla Coke and Twinkies? With increasing vigor, public health experts and think tanks are calling for extra taxes on foods and drinks that are heavy in calories and light on nutrition. New York Gov. David Paterson proposed an 18% soda tax last year as a budget-balancing measure, only to abandon it three months later in the...

Despite repeated promises that President Obama will not raise taxes on anyone earning less than $250,000 a year, senior administration officials recently floated the possibility that tax increases on middle class Americans might be necessary to pay for health care reform.The latest IBD/TIPP poll, however, found that Americans by a 61% to 29% margin do not welcome this approach. Democrats support the idea 47% to 43%, but Republicans and Independents oppose it by 80% to 13% and 69% to 26%, respectively. The finding is in line with recent IBD/TIPP data showing that Independents are becoming closer to Republicans' point of...

Barack Obama's political fate depends on a group of Americans he hasn't done much to cultivate — the rich.Presidencies can succeed or fail on one transcendent issue. With George Bush, it was Iraq. Obama's burden lies in delivering on his ambitious policy goals without bankrupting the country. Obama wants to spend at a time when America's fiscal prospects are dire. In the midst of the worst economic crisis since the Depression, Washington's red ink has swelled beyond anything ever seen in peacetime — $1.8 trillion this year, $1.4 trillion in 2010, $970 billion in 2011 and $658 billion in 2012,...

While the Washington press corps was fixated last week on the latest developments surrounding President Obama’s trillion dollar co-pay in the guise of health reform, followed by backyard beer swilling, IRS bean counters quietly went about their business. Their mission? Find a way to pay for the massive zeroes this administration continues to add at the end of the government’s mounting debt. In what some privately likened to an ancient an archaeological find teeming with treasure, revenue agents discovered a potential $80 million golden pot of money – at the home of Michael Jackson. That’s what the Feds stand to...

There’s so much dismal news for The One in these crosstabs, I honestly wasn’t sure to lead with. The GOP erasing a 13-point Democratic lead on the generic ballot in April to pull dead even now? 57 percent declaring the White House snitch line inappropriate? A 52/29 split on the question of whether town hall outrage is authentic or artificial? Or a 13-point surge in the number of people since March who say they’d like to see less of The One on TV? (Overall split is 25/49, among independents it’s 22/50.) I decided to stick with the big stuff, the...

A proposal to tax generous health plans could ensnare a broader swath of employers and workers whose benefits aren't necessarily gold-plated. The idea, first pitched by Democratic Sen. John Kerry late last month, is being given serious consideration by members of the Senate Finance Committee. Senior House leaders and the Obama administration have said they are willing to entertain the idea to help finance a health-care overhaul. Besides potentially generating tens of billions of dollar, proponents argue the move could slow the steep rise in health spending. They say generous insurance plans can encourage people to spend more freely on...

No country for old men, indeed By Peter Lucas August 9, 2009 IN THE SPIRIT of being a good American - a worker, father, grandfather, taxpayer, and a veteran who served in the Army during the Korean War era - I feel it is my duty to help the Obama administration pay for universal healthcare. After all, the president’s opponents claim he would ration healthcare and do away with old people. My country is calling.

Lost in the vigorous national debate over health care reform is the potentially transformative effect any major legislation will have on the nature of American democracy. The deeper question we should be debating is this: What happens to our democracy when a majority of American voters depend on the government for a paycheck? Our nation's founding generation was profoundly aware of the relationship between economic independence and democratic participation. In classical Athens, Aristotle had argued that political participation required property ownership, since those who did not own property "have no share in the state." Likewise, our founders largely restricted voting...

At some point, the Great Recession will end. Newsweek even says it's already over. Whenever it happens, we will see that the downturn was but a minor blip in the long story of the economy. In the next chapter, abundance beckons -- for some. Advances in technology drive economic growth, and there is no sign that they are slackening. The American economy is likely to continue unabated on the upward path that began with the Industrial Revolution. No, the economic problems of the future will not be about growth but about something more nettlesome: the ineluctable increase in the number...

News Analysis by IBD Like just about every other sector of the economy, small business has been trying to get a fix on a moving target: the Democratic Congress' notion of how to pay for the health insurance it wants all Americans to have. The House version would require any employer with a payroll of at least $500,000 a year to provide health insurance or pay a penalty. The penalty would start at 2% of payroll and increase with payroll size. The maximum penalty would be 8% of payroll for firms whose annual outlay for wages and salaries is $750,000...

Does President Obama care more about passing health-care reform that truly gets costs under control, or more about getting reelected? Does he care more about getting the nation's fiscal house in order, or more about getting reelected? Right now, the evidence points to getting reelected. Exhibit A came at Monday's White House briefing: 45 minutes of press secretary Robert Gibbs restating the president's "clear commitment in the clearest terms possible, that he's not raising taxes on those who make less than $250,000 a year." Duh, some of you may say. Self-preservation is the first instinct of any politician. Breaking promises...

Atlas may have too much to shrug off. The Commerce Department says personal income fell 1.3% in June, the worst in four years. The Internal Revenue Service reports a staggering 18% drop in tax receipts thus far this year, the biggest drop since Franklin Roosevelt’s Great Depression. Conservative estimates of the nation’s deficit peg it at $1.8 Trillion dollars. Individual taxpayer receipts have fallen by 22% compared to this point last year. Corporate tax receipts are down 57% from last year. For just the second time since 1940 Social Security tax receipts have dropped. Unless something miraculous happens, Medicare tax...

Each week the Gallup organization publishes an analysis of job approval for President Barack Obama, broken down by all sorts of demographic groups. You want to know the president's approval rating among voters 65 years or older? It's 48 percent. Voters with a high-school diploma or less? Fifty-six percent. Voters who call themselves liberal Democrats? Ninety-one percent. As far as income is concerned, Gallup reports its results for people who make less than $24,000 a year, those who make between $24,000 and $60,000 a year, those who make between $60,000 and $90,000 a year, and those who make more than...