Research

As part of their desperate search for revenue to pay for their $2.5 trillion government-run health care experiment, Democrats will tax anything and everything. In particular, a group they consistently promise they have avoided: the middle class. On Saturday, Obama bragged about keeping his promise not to tax families making less than $250,000 per year. Today, a story from The Hill on a Joint Committee On Taxation report proves that claim to be just another one of his lies.

Taxpayers earning less than $200,000 a year will pay roughly $3.9 billion more in taxes -- in 2019 alone -- because of healthcare reform, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation, Congress' official scorekeeper for legislation. The new law raises $15.2 billion over 10 years by limiting the medical expense deduction, a provision widely used by taxpayers who either have a serious illness or are older. Taxpayers can currently deduct medical expenses in excess of 7.5 percent of their adjusted gross income. Starting in 2013, most taxpayers will only be allowed to deducted expenses greater than 10 percent of AGI. Older taxpayers are hit by this threshold increase in 2017.

So ObamaCare taxes the middle class -- specifically those with extremely high medical expenses. In other words, Democrats are raising $15 billion by taxing people who are very sick. We started a “The Tax Man Cometh” series leading up to Tax Day on April 15^th to highlight this and other taxes. So far we’ve covered the new health care taxes the federal government is collecting and pressure on cash-strapped states to raise taxes to pay for unfunded imposed Medicaid expansions.

Here’s how the patron of a local tanning salon in Las Cruces, New Mexico reacted to new tanning taxes to pay for ObamaCare:

Las Crucen Eleonor Thome said, upon learning of the tax, she bought a two-year indoor tanning package, in anticipation rates soon would go up. After that package expires, she said she’ll consider not visiting tanning salons anymore, because she’s philosophically opposed to the tax. She said the measure attempts to ‘demonize’ an industry and is not going to fix health-care system problems. ‘We need taxes, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t like taxes that punish people who make income and create jobs in this country. Trust me, they’re coming for you next,’ she said of the federal government.

To see how the Federal government is coming for you next, come back to GOP.com daily for the rest of our “The Taxman Cometh” series.