Research

Democrats are taxing everything in sight to pay for their new government-run health care experiment.  A tax on the health insurance industry will likely be in whatever final bills the House and Senate end up voting on, and the Senate Finance Committee bill included a $6.1 billion annual levy on the insurance industry. 

In their haste to tax, Democrats haven’t thought through the implications of this policy.  The tax would start immediately in 2010, so insurance companies would have very little time to adjust their rates and policies to compensate for the new expense.  This tax would have a large effect on the smaller companies with less money. Those smaller insurers would have to raise their premiums, which will help entrench the largest insurers, leading to less competition. InsideHealthPolicy.com (subscription required) explains:

“‘In the worst case, United and WellPoint certainly have the capacity and the capital to pay the tax,’ the analysts write in an Oct. 6 note obtained by ... more

That’s what the Obama Administration told business leaders (a/k/a job creators) who were in Washington last week to express concerns about a White House proposal to increase taxes on profits made from overseas operations. Obama economic adviser Larry Summers told the business executives in a meeting last week that the government is desperate for new revenues and the business community needs to help cut the deficit. Summers pleaded, “I need you to be patriotic.” 

Larry Summers is right on one point; the government is desperate for money.  Obama’s spending is out of control. Just look at the $787 billion stimulus, the GM and Chrysler bailouts, and the nearly trillion dollar health care legislation they’ve proposed.  The government could cut their spending, but why do that when they could continue to hit businesses with more taxes?  U.S. businesses already pay one of the highest corporate tax rates in the world, what’s a few more taxes?

This is eerily similar to Joe Biden’s message ... more