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1962 - Articles of incorporation filed for Golden State Memorial Hospital on Lyons Avenue [story]
Golden State Hospital


| Friday, Mar 10, 2017
Commentary by Betty Arenson

The mainstream media walk hand in hand with the left in their aim to invoke fear into Americans concerning the Obamacare issue now that Republicans are in the majority.

A primary scare is that any new plan will leave millions uninsured.

Democrats now demand their place at the table for a new plan, which is exactly what they didn’t do with Republicans in 2009.

The first draft is now out, and it will be critiqued word for word, which certainly never happened at any time with the Democrat-Obamacare’s 2,700 pages. Had that been done in a bipartisan way and not Nancy Pelosi’s “You have to pass it so we can find out what is in it,” we wouldn’t be in this mess today.

There’s a host of Obamacare lies: “You can keep your doctor, your plan, your hospital; bankruptcies from medical bills will stop; families will save $2,500 per year; the bill will be viewed on C-Span, and 20 million are now insured.”

Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer stated this week that with repeal, Americans “will pay more and get less.”

Obamacare has already done that.

Americans for Tax Reform lists the taxes imposed by Obamacare:

1. 156-percent increase in the federal excise tax on tobacco, effective Feb. 4, 2009. (The median income of smokers is $36,000 per year.)

2. Obamacare Individual Mandate Excise Tax: The Health and Human Services Obama appointees define “qualifying” health insurance. If you do not buy theirs, you must pay an income surtax, effective January 2014.

3. Obamacare Employer Mandate Tax (on 50 employees or more): The combined burden of individual and employer mandate tax penalties is $65 billion over 10 years.

4. Obamacare Surtax on Investment Income: creates a new 3.8-percent surtax on investment income. A $123 billion tax hike as of January 2013. Includes (for surtax purposes) gross income from interest, annuities, royalties, net rents and passive income in partnerships and Subchapter-S corporations. The 3.8-percent surtax does not apply to non-resident aliens.

5. Obamacare Excise Tax on Comprehensive Health Insurance Plans, effective January 2018. A 40-percent excise tax on “Cadillac plans.”

6. Obamacare Hike in Medicare Payroll Tax: $86.8 billion tax hike effective January 2013.

7. Obamacare Medicine Cabinet Tax: $5 billion, effective January 2011. It erases the Health Savings Account and flexible spending account.

8. Obamacare HSA Withdrawal Tax Hike (Penalty): $1.4 billion tax increase effective January 2011.

9. Obamacare Flexible Spending Account Cap, aka Special Needs Kids Tax: $13 billion tax hike effective January 2014. Erases parents’ ability to take FSA money and pay for schooling for special-needs children.

10.  Obamacare Tax on Medical Device Manufacturers: Tax hike of $20 billion – a 2.3-percent tax hike on medical device manufacturers (on 409,000 people in 12,000 plants) irrespective of profit.

11. Obamacare “Haircut” for Medical Itemized Deduction: Tax hike of $15.2 billion tax effective January 2013. It increased the threshold of deducting medical expenses from 7.5 percent of adjusted gross income to 10 percent.

12. Obamacare Tax on Indoor Tanning Services: $2.7 billion tax hike effective July 2010. New 10-percent excise tax on Americans using indoor tanning salons.

13. Elimination of tax deduction for employer-provided retirement prescription drug coverage (coordinates with Medicare Part D): A $4.5 billion tax hike effective January 2013.

14. Blue Cross-Blue Shield Tax Hike. $400 million increase effective January 2010. Mandates that the special tax deduction in current for Blue Cross-Blue Shield companies will be allowed only if 85 percent or more of premium revenues are spent on clinical services.

15. Obamacare Excise Tax on Charitable Hospitals: Minimal increase effective immediately. Taxes each hospital $50,000 if they fail to meet new “community health assessment needs,” “financial assistance” and “billing and collection” rules set by Obama-appointed HHS bureaucrats.

16. Obamacare Tax on Innovator Drug Companies: $22.2 billion tax hike effective January 2010. Annual tax of $2.3 billion based on share of sales made each year.

17. Obamacare Tax on Health Insurers. Tax hike of $60.1 billion effective January 2014. Annual tax on the industry based on insurance premiums collected yearly. Imposed through 2018 but fully imposed in 2014 on firms with $50 million in profits.

18. Obamacare $500,000 Annual Executive Compensation Limit for Health Insurance Executives: $600 million hike effective January 2013.

19. Obamacare Employer Reporting of Insurance on W-2 forms: Minimum dollars effective January 2012. “Preamble to taxing health benefits on individual tax returns.”

20. “Black liquor” tax hike (on a type of biofuel): $23.6 billion tax hike effective immediately.

21. Obamacare codification of the “economic substance doctrine:” $4.5 billion tax hike effective immediately. Allows the IRS to reject completely legal tax deductions and other legal tax-minimizing plans just because the IRS deems the action lacks “substance” and is merely intended to reduce taxes owed.

It’s important to remember that President Obama, with Democrats in line, promised Americans that Obamacare was not a tax — that is, until his Solicitor General Donald Verrilli Jr. went before the United States Supreme Court and argued that it is a tax (which was needed to get Obamacare passed).

Democrats are incapable of assessing the nation’s healthcare. Rest assured the lies and propaganda will continue.

 

Betty Arenson is a Valencia resident who believes in the Constitution in its entirety and that laws should be upheld and apply to everyone equally.

Comment On This Story
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2 Comments

  1. Denny NNWofLA says:

    When I read Americans for Tax Reform, I read no further. This is an ultra right-wing group headed by Grover Noquist. ‘Nuf said.

  2. mellie says:

    ATR is NOT “ultra-right-wing”. It is a LARGE group of Patriotic Americans working hard to restore our Constitutional principles, regardless of the Left’s evil propaganda and attempted destruction, as personified in its hitler, soetoro. And the name is Norquist.

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