Welcome to the August Green Business issue of NorthBay biz magazine. This month’s issue focuses on the world of green and emerging technology. In addition to all the stories, you’ll find more than a dozen local columns and special features—original, quality information about local business that’s unavailable anywhere else. As the region’s only locally owned business publication, we always welcome your input on how NorthBay biz can continue to best serve the local North Bay business community.
The list of deceptions by the current administration is long and growing. While campaigning for president, candidate Obama made “a firm pledge” not to raise any taxes: “Not your income taxes, not your payroll taxes, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes.” In 2009, he vigorously denied that the individual health care mandate is a tax. Later he stated, “No family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase.” All that was missing was a reprise of the infamous, “read my lips” quote.
Here’s what Chief Justice John Marshall had to say about the government’s power to tax, “An unlimited power to tax involves, necessarily, the power to destroy.”
Now, according to the revered justices of the Supreme Court of the United States, the only way they could justify not striking down Obamacare as unconstitutional was if it was deemed a tax. The Commerce clause couldn’t be stretched to apply, nor the General Welfare clause. The only way to uphold this very shaky law was to call it a tax. And when it comes to taxes, our new national health care plan receives an AAA+ rating.
The Wall Street Journal states, “75 percent of Obamacare expenses will be funded by those making less than $120,000 annually.” Overall, it will impose $800 billion in new taxes and add $2 trillion in new debt. There are some 20 new taxes associated with this new law. They begin coming online, conveniently, after the November election. Of course, they don’t want any of these costs called a tax—that could hurt them at the ballot box. The administration, even after the Supreme Court ruling, calls them mandates. Very strange, since monies collected on your failure to comply are collected by the IRS; rules are written in the Internal Revenue Code and money owed is paid on your 1040 federal income tax return and the CBO takes the money and counts it as tax revenue in the general fund.
Some of the new taxes coming online in January 2013 include: Obamacare medical device manufacturing tax, Obamacare high medical bills tax, Obamacare flexible spending account cap, Obamacare surtax on investment income and the Obamacare Medicare payroll tax increase—with the rest to follow as the year unfolds. 2013 should be great. My guess is these new costs will really help revive the economy and get the country back to full employment in no time.
So far, if we see the world as the administration does, we’d agree, there’ll be no tax increases on the middle class. What else? Will Medicare be protected? Not so much. Proposed funding cuts of $500 billion in addition to hundreds of new provisions just might affect the quality of care. What about patient/doctor relationships being preserved? With Obamacare much more concerned with costs than quality of care, what do you think will happen down the road to this empty promise? I think you get the drift. This is a terrible law conceived under the guise of making health care available to more people, when in reality it’s just another huge power grab by the feds.
Contrary to all the official hype, Obamacare significantly bends the cost curve up—not down. Expanding the number of people who have medical insurance certainly isn’t the same as granting access to actual quality medical care. The only way health care costs in a socialized system can be contained is by rationing services and reducing quality. As nameless, faceless bureaucrats in Washington sit on panels and decide who gets what coverage at what cost, the access to treatment withers. Patient choice is diminished as a bureaucrat stands between you and your doctor. Look around the world at other countries that have implemented this kind of health system and you’ll find people waiting for months to just see a doctor, let alone receive treatment. Why do people come to this country for treatment? Because they can’t receive life saving care in their own country.
Our country was founded primarily to “secure the blessings of liberty,” not to secure the ever-expanding power of government. It’s a monumental blow to our freedoms when the government can use taxing power to accomplish regulatory ends that are clearly denied under its enumerated powers. Imagine how this power can be used in the future to compel behavior. And there’s nothing the nanny state enjoys more than telling you what you must do—for your own best interest, of course. Politicians are just born smarter than you and me. Want to buy a foreign car next year? You probably still can, but you might have to pay a $10,000 poor choice tax. However, if you buy a GM (government made) car you’ll receive a $5,000 subsidy. See, I must be crazy; you’ll still have a choice. Just make sure to make it a government-approved one and everything will be fine.
It continues to amaze me that the popular will of the country has been so routinely ignored over the past several years. Most polls have Americans rejecting Obamacare by a 60 to 35 percent margin. That fact matters not in the least. Obamacare and its attendant plethora of new rules and regulations will have a further crippling effect on any potential job creation and economic rebound. That matters not a whit to the powers in Washington. Their power has been expanded. All is right in their world. (By the way, they’re exempt from Obamacare coverage.) Good enough for us. Not good enough for them. Is it November yet?
That’s it for now. Enjoy this month’s magazine.
