As if the first round of tax increases on the “rich” only were not enough, now Congress is apparently planning to hit individuals with adjusted gross incomes above $200,000 & couples above $250,000 with a new surcharge to subsidize health care insurance for people who don’t have it.
House Democrats working on President Barack Obama’s goal of health legislation are narrowing in on an income tax surcharge on the highest-paid wage earners to help subsidize insurance for the 50 million people who lack it…
As discussed in the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, the surtax would apply to individuals with adjusted gross income of more than $200,000 and couples over $250,000, according to officials involved in the discussion. Most spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks were private. [1]
Where does it end?
Why do democrats insist on destroying the very root of what has made America such a powerful economic engine: the knowledge that productive individuals will reap the fruits of their own labor without threat of unjust confiscation?
It’s one thing to raises taxes on everyone to finance a healthcare plan (or any other government venture).
It’s downright criminal to single out the very folks who, from an economic standpoint, are the most productive in our society simply because they are, well, the most productive.
This is America. We don’t punish the best. We reward them.
Why should anyone create wealth through entrepreneurship, invention and hard work (something Thomas Friedman of The New York Times is urging us all to do ) if the government is going to confiscate and re-distribute it? [2]
In the long run this policy, and others like it, are deeply destructive: the wealth democrats are trying to appropriate and re-distribute will eventually vanish.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Considering half those people got their money off of inheritances, or being born to somebody who owned their own business and got to take over once the dad dies or retires, I really don’t feel bad taxing someone who makes $250,000 a month so a full time student or someone who was born into a poor family can have something as simple as proper health insurance. People don’t need $20,000 a month to put food on the table and pay the bills. And for the people who did work hard to earn their money, I think they’ll survive just fine with $18,000 a month as opposed to $20,000 a month. They want to cry about it, try surviving off $1,000 a month like I (barely) do.
Excuse me, $250,000 a YEAR I meant to say.
Well Sam go and ask for aid from someone who has money. No one is stopping you. Its immoral to think they “owe” you health care just because you need it (I’ve been a poor graduate student myself). Lot’s of people need food in the world. Shouldn’ they get the money first? Isn’t food more important than healthcare? Also, where is your reference for “half the people got their money off of inheritances”?
Thanks to the Blue Dogs for at the very least providing a moment of pause:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090710/ap_on_go_co/us_health_care_overhaul