While the White House continues to try and spin the Supreme Court’s ruling that Obamacare is not a tax, we here at Freedom Outpost will continue to refer to Obamacare as “ObamaTax” just to keep it fresh in the readers minds. Senior Economics Writer with the Wall Street Journal, Stephen Moore, voiced his opinion as to just where this tax is targeted: Middle and lower class Americans.
Saturday on Fox and Friends, Alisyn Camerota said that the Obama administration continues to refer to the health care law as a penalty on ‘free loaders on the system’ and not a tax. She asked, “Why do you think this equates to a tax for everyone?”
“Well the Court decided this the other day,” Moore began. “There’s an old saying that if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck. For Americans who are going to have to pay these fines, penalties, taxes…whatever you want to call them, we’ve found that it’s going to be pretty darn expensive.”
“The taxes phase in over time, so next year they might be modest. By 2015 or 2016, for families that choose not to buy health insurance, you’re talking about a fine that could be over $2000 a year.”
Alisyn pointed out that there is an example that the tax will be $95 for an adult and $285 for a family. However, by 2016 the adult tax becomes $695 and the family tax becomes a whopping $2,085. These taxes are for those that the administration calls “free loaders” or those who do not purchase health insurance. In other words they throw my family in with this. We don’t have health insurance and have paid out of pocket for any health care we have received and we have nine children! I’m far from a ‘free loader.’
Camerota asks, “How then does this all translate out to everyone else?”
“One of the reasons people may not buy health insurance is because it is so expensive,” Moore said. “One of the rationale behind the Obamacare law was that it was going to reduce premiums and remember the promise that it was going to make health insurance less expensive. So far, we’re finding just the opposite. For example, in the first year that Obamacare has taken effect, insurance premiums went up by 8, 9, 10 percent. If those continue to go up at that pace, you’re talking about $300 to $400 increases in the cost of health insurance a year for people who have health insurance in terms of what they are paying for premiums.”
“One of the things we’ve found at the Wall Street Journal is…you remember the president’s promise, when he was elected, that no one who makes under $200,000 a year would pay a dime more of taxes. Well, guess what? We found that about three quarters of these, whatever you want to call them…’taxes, fines, penalties’… about three quarters of those will fall on the backs of families that make less than $120,000 a year.”
“So it’s a big punch in the stomach to middle class families,” Moore concludes.
He’s exactly right. It is a huge blow not only to the economy, but for those who simply cannot afford to have this kind of thing thrown on them so that the true “free loaders” can have health insurance provided by Barack “Insane” Obama.
