Tax Increases By Any Other Name

Dick Morris was on Hannity tonight making a very important point about the costs of the health care bill. The lead in was Obama's rambling incoherent answer to a woman's question about being taxed too much. Note that she is a lot smarter than Obama really gives her credit for. She is not asking about her own taxes, but is worried about her employer going under. Notice how politically tone deaf the President is. (I've only posted part one, he rambles on twice as long after saying "my final point is.")



Apart from all the lies, he also fails to address key ways that citizens pay more under the bill. First, by requiring the states to add more to the medicaid rolls, he is imposing a de-facto state tax increase. Here in California, you know this will be seized upon to usher in other taxes as well. Second, by requiring the insurance companies to accept everyone with a pre-existing condition, he is raising insurance rates for everyone. Americans know instinctively that such a massive intrusion by big government will hurt their wallets. This is why Obama's answer is so long and rambling, but in the end never addresses the issue.

Stealth taxation like that in Obamacare is quite in vogue in other areas. Consider:

• Cap and trade is really a tax on businesses, but not advertised as such. This is why the mocking nickname "crap and tax" illuminates the issue. Even better for the Democrats, by passing out "credits" to favored pals, they can buy more votes.
• Amnesty for illegals will result in more taxes or higher insurance premiums as millions are added to the stealthcare rolls who currently lack insurance.
• Trans fat bans increase the cost of doing business for restaurant owners, despite the dubious science behind the ban and the fact that saturated fats have their own risks.
• Finally, all the "jobs bill" and pork laden stimulus will only lead to higher debt, which is inevitably leading to higher taxes or inflation, itself an insidious tax on the accumulated wealth of all Americans.
  

Obama's supporters are always yelling at the Tea Party, "Obama didn't raise your taxes." But we know better, don't we?

Meanwhile Doc Zero has an impassioned plea for going all out for repeal of this bill. I agree, failure to repeal Obamacare puts us much further down the road to European style socialism with permanent high unemployment and low growth. (H/T Dean.)

It’s true that the GOP cannot completely dedicate itself to the repeal of one piece of legislation for the next three years. Instead, they should dedicate themselves to slaying the blasphemous, rotting leviathan that gave birth to ObamaCare, and whose tentacles are visibly squeezing the life out of the American economy. Big Government is a parasite that is more than willing to kill its host. Ordinary people are beginning to see it for what it is. They understand that something is terribly wrong with their government. Now is the time to explain the origins of this leviathan, and put ObamaCare in its proper context… as the final, absurd contortions of a philosophy that acts in complete ignorance, and sometimes outright contempt, for what free people can achieve. Behold the toxic wonder of a bill that forces people to buy a product that it will also cause a shortage of.

I don't believe I have been reading enough of Doctor Zero, he has some solid prose and great explanations.