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Townhall Finance...
John Roberts Is a
Super-Taxer
by Larry Kudlow
In the hours following the Supreme Court’s decision to ratify
Obamacare, Romney got $4.6 million in donations from 47,000
individuals. The tide is with him. The Supreme’s are a game changer.
But Romney has to make the case. He needs to link the anemic jobs and
economic situation to the Obamacare tax, spend, and regulate fiscal
drag. And he has to add to that mix the dangers to our freedoms
embodied in Justice John Roberts’s expansion of the power to tax our
personal behavior.
Scott Rasmussen says the idea of Obamacare repeal has held steady at
around 54 percent ever since its passage in March 2010. This reveals
the dynamic political opportunity that Governor Romney has. Again, it’s
a three-pronged attack: The anemic economy, the Obamacare costs that
are stifling the economy, and the John Roberts expanded power of
taxation that will bring us more mandates, more entitlements, and less
personal freedom, all of which will further cripple the economy.
One way of looking at Roberts’s slight-of-hand decision to vote in
favor of Obamacare is that a tax is a tax is a tax. As a non-lawyer, I
see the Roberts vote as a massive expansion of federal government
taxing power. Just what we don’t need.
Supply-siders like myself argue that when you tax something you get
less of it. With Judge Roberts throwing in with the liberals on the
Court to expand federal tax powers, we now face the massive threat of
ultra-slow economic growth in the U.S. for years to come.
The Roberts Court has served up a “tax mandate” that is more powerful
than the still-limited Commerce Clause regulatory mandate. Roberts has
created a huge new loophole. Instead of new purchase mandates, we’ll
have new purchase tax mandates.
This expanded tax power could force me to eat broccoli if the
government so chooses, or make me put solar panels on my home. Governor
Bobby Jindal now worries about the people who “refuse to eat tofu or
refuse to drive a Chevy Volt.” Not because of the Commerce Clause, but
because of the new tax-mandate clause. You’ll be taxed heavily if you
don’t do what the government wants you to do.
And don’t we have enough taxes already in this country? And what about
the tax threats that are coming down the road?
Repealing the Bush tax cuts and adding on the Obamacare tax hikes will
produce outrageous marginal tax rates of roughly 45 percent for
successful earners, dividend investors, and small-business owners. In
other words, European-style taxes, which suggests anemic European-style
growth.
Americans for Tax Reform estimates that Obamacare contains 20 new or
higher taxes on American families and small businesses. Investor’s
Business Daily says this comes to a $675 billion tax hike over the next
decade. Steve Moore of the Wall Street Journal editorial board cites
CBO estimates that roughly 8 million (or 76 percent of) middle-class
taxpayers earning less than 120,000 a year will shoulder the new
Obamacare tax mandate authorized by Judge Roberts.
And this whole panoply of Obamacare taxes is already one big drag on
the economy. Just in recent days, revised GDP came in at 1.9 percent,
and real consumer spending was essentially flat. Job growth has slowed
markedly, as have new factory orders. Economists on Wall Street are
looking for only 2 percent growth this year. The Fed is so worried
about the economy it might launch another counterproductive
quantitative easing.
Meanwhile, health-care premiums are going up, not down. Mandated
one-size-fits-all health services and insurance will incentivize
businesses to pay the fine and push employees into the state’s exchange
system. And this will drive up the subsidized entitlement even more.
The CBO now estimates that Obamacare spending will hit $1.8 trillion
over the next ten years. That’s a number that started out at only half
as much. But that’s what happens when you install European- style
entitlements. You threaten to bankrupt the nation’s finances. Or you
threaten to literally tax us into perpetual subpar growth and high
unemployment.
And that’s the case Mitt Romney has to make. But he has to hammer away,
day by day. He needs to make these points if we’re to end the malaise.
Read this and other articles at Townhall Finance
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