By Rebekah Rast — Now that we know what leadership the next four years holds, there’s much at stake this coming year that needs to be addressed now.
Come January, Americans will be facing myriad new taxes under Obamacare. Unless Congress and the newly elected leader of this country make some radical changes to this law, the American people will become further entwined in its web of mandates and regulations.
Americans have already seen some Obamacare taxes come to fruition. In 2010, a 10 percent excise tax on indoor tanning services went into effect.
In 2011, Americans faced what Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) calls the Medicine Cabinet Tax. Meaning Americans are no longer able to use health savings account (HSA), flexible spending account (FSA) or health reimbursement (HRA) pre-tax dollars to purchase non-prescription, over-the-counter medicines.
In 2012, the Employer Reporting of Insurance on W-2 began, which ATR says is a preamble to taxing health benefits on individual tax returns.
However, 2013 brings even more of this law to the surface with a whole host of new laws and requirements for individuals and businesses to follow.
Starting this coming January, the Medical Device Manufacturing Tax, which is a 2.3 percent tax on medical device makers, will increase the cost of devices such as pacemakers, stents and prosthetic limbs.
ATR’s Communications Director, John Kartch explains in a Fox News article that, “The tax is particularly destructive because it is levied on gross sales and even targets companies who haven’t turned a profit yet. These are often small, scrappy companies with less than 20 employees who pioneer the next generation of life-prolonging devices. In addition to raising the cost of health care, this $20 billion tax over the next ten years will not help the country’s jobs outlook, as the industry employs nearly 400,000 Americans. Several companies have already responded to the looming tax by cutting research and development budgets and laying off workers.”
Another provision of Obamacare set to affect millions of Americans is the Flexible Spending Account Cap. The 24 million Americans who have Flexible Spending Accounts will face a new federally imposed $2,500 annual cap. Currently these pre-tax accounts have no annual cap. Many American families use these accounts for big purchases like vision needs or even braces for children. Parents of special-needs children were also able to use these accounts to help cover the cost of school tuition. This will be a huge financial burden to families that already might have higher than usual expenses to cover.
Another big tax coming in January 2013 is the Medicare Payroll Tax increase. This tax hits employers hard — $86 billion over the next 10 years.
ATR’s Kartch says of this tax increase: “As you can understand, there is a reason why the authors of ObamaCare wrote the law in such a way that the most brutal tax increases take effect conveniently after the 2012 election. It’s the same reason President Obama, congressional Democrats, and the mainstream media conveniently neglect to mention these taxes and prefer that you simply “move on” after the Supreme Court ruling.”
These taxes and the many more accompanying them won’t go away unless Congress and the newly elected president make a change to this law.
Americans for Limited Government (ALG) Staff Attorney John Vinci, points out that many more regulations are set to come out after the Nov. 6 elections, so get ready. He also notes that Obamacare’s regulations are now 2,864,094 words long. That’s about 700,000 words more than when last reported at the end of February.
Bill Wilson, president of ALG, says a repeal of Obamacare needs to be priority No. 1 for this new leadership.
“If Obamacare is not repealed it threatens to strangle America’s economy with so much red tape that no small businessman could ever comply. While a boon for lawyers it is disastrous for the 23 million people who hope to find a job in the years ahead. Repeal must be job No. 1 in January.”
Rebekah Rast is a contributing editor to Americans for Limited Government (ALG) and NetRightDaily.com. You can follow her on twitter at @RebekahRast.
