FWD This is What Change Looks like

THIS IS WHAT CHANGE LOOKS LIKE

a.. Force all Americans to buy over-priced, politically created health insurance

b.. Create an economically unsustainable government-run insurance plan

c.. Create health care rationing through government committees

d.. Impose economy-crushing taxes

e.. Eliminate private, employer-based coverage for 88 million Americans

f.. Raise yearly premiums for Americans with private coverage by as much as $460 per person

g.. Reduce the annual physician net income by 6.3 percent or $13.4 billion (average $18,900 per physician) when compared with current trends

h.. Create a special deal for union members

i.. Impose increased Medicare surtaxes on both earned income (imposed at a rate of 0.9%) and investment income (imposed at a higher rate of 3.8%) feature far lower thresholds - $200,000 for singles and $250,000 for couples

j.. Increase taxes on real estate investments

k.. Strengthen the IRS's heavy hand in dealing with ordinary taxpayers who play by the rules

l.. Grow the IRS by up to 16,500 additional auditors, agents, and other employees just to enforce all the new taxes and penalties.

m.. Empower the IRS to: (1) verify that Americans have "acceptable" health care coverage; (2) fine Americans up to $2,085 or 2 percent of income (whichever is greater) for the failure to purchase "minimum essential coverage"; (3) confiscate tax refunds; and (4) increase audits.

n.. Impose new marriage penalties. If two people make $32,000 per year, they would pay between $6,000 and $10,000 more for health insurance than before they said "I do." This is because as singles they were poor enough to receive health care subsidies, but as a married couple, these Americans are too rich for federal assistance.

o.. Slap Americans in the face by breaking President Obama's pledge not to raise taxes on those making less than $200,000 for singles and $250,000 for couples.

p.. Raise the threshold for out-of-pocket medical expenses from 7.5% of income to 10% of income.

q.. The Medicare tax now applies to capital gains, dividends, interest, rents, royalties, and other investment income of singles earning over $200,000 and couples earning over $250,000 instead of being taxed at a top rate of 15%, long-term capital gains rates would rise by almost 60% next year - from 15% to 23.8% - and the top tax rate on dividends would nearly triple - from 15% to 43.4%.

r.. Rob Peter and leave Paul broke. Removes the deduction for state and local sales taxes, the R&D tax credit, and numerous energy-related incentives.


A list of important numbers relevant to this new "law."




$1.2 trillion: The total cost of the bill between 2010 and 2020 (though the real costs do not start until 2014), including $940 billion in coverage subsidies, $144.2 billion in additional mandatory spending, $70 billion in discretionary spending in the Senate bill, and $41.6 billion in unrelated education spending.

$208 billion: The cost of a ten year patch for the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) to prevent reduction in Medicare physician payments. This cost is hidden because it was included in the earlier Democrat bill, but was dropped to provide a better cost estimate. It is expected to move separately and would bring the true cost of the takeover to $1.4 trillion.

$569.2 billion: Tax increases in the legislation, including $48.9 billion in new tax increases in the reconciliation bill alone.

$52 billion: The amount of new taxes on employers who cannot afford to pay their employees health care, imposed at a time when unemployment is 9.7 percent.


The number of new tax increases in the bill that violate President Obama's pledge that, "Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase":

46%: The percentage of families making less than $66,150 who will be forced to pay the individual mandate tax.

16,500: The estimated number of IRS auditors, agents and other employees that may be needed to collect the hundreds of billions in new taxes levied on the American people.

$20 billion: The estimated amount of money that the IRS and HHS will need for the cost of additional regulations, bureaucracy, and red tape over the next ten years. This spending is not included in CBO's cost estimate of H.R. 4872.

$53 billion: The amount of revenue this bill raids from Social Security to appear as if it actually reduces the deficit.

$202.3 billion: The amount of money cut from the Medicare Advantage program for seniors to help offset the costs of a new entitlement.

$436 billion: The amount of federal subsidies in the bill that will go directly to insurance companies to provide health care in the exchange.

63%: The percentage of physicians surveyed who feel that health reform is needed, but are opposed to this sweeping overhaul legislation.

$9 billion: The amount that the Ways and Means Committee estimated Medicare would spend annually after 25 years when it was passed in 1965. In reality, Medicare spent $67 billion in 1990, or seven times the initial cost estimate.

$1.55 trillion: The projected FY 2010 deficit-11 times the ten year "savings" Democrats claim the bill will produce by spending more than $1 trillion for this government takeover of health care.


Let's not forget that this law also provides for a take-over of the student loan system guaranteeing that the government will ultimately decide:

a.. who will go to college

b.. what college they attend

c.. what classes they will take

d.. what curriculum is "acceptable" for funding


"This is what 'change' looks like."
~United States President, Barach Hussein Obama, during his victory speech after Congress approved the new "health care bill," Monday 22 March 2010 (wee hours of the morning).