Griffith Exposes Hidden Obamacare Taxes

Virginia's ninth-district Congressman Morgan Griffith shares official e-mail updates with any of his constituents who care to read them, and this week he's announced plans to discuss several of the new taxes "hidden" in the loathsome "[Absolute Prevention of] Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act," more generally known as Obamacare. To keep the e-mails short, here are just two:

"Hidden Taxes in ObamaCare
As I’m sure would be the case for any 2,400 page bill, there are a few good ideas in President Obama’s health care law, also known as the Affordable Care Act (ACA) or ObamaCare. Unfortunately for the American people, the bad ideas outweigh the good ones. Among the many bad ideas are twenty new or increased taxes included in ObamaCare [a full list can be found here]. Over the course of the next few weeks I’ll be highlighting some of these new taxes. As compiled by Americans for Tax Reform, let me point out two of them today.

Individual Mandate Excise Tax (Takes effect Jan. 2014):

Individual: Anyone not buying “qualifying” health insurance as defined by Obama-appointed bureaucrats must pay an income surtax according to the higher of the following

	1 Adult	2 Adults	3+ Adults
2014	1% AGI/$95	1% AGI/$190	1% AGI/$285
2015	2% AGI/$325	2% AGI/$650	2% AGI/$975
2016+	2.5% AGI/$695	2.5% AGI/$1390	2.5% AGI/$2085

*[AGI – Adjusted Gross Income]; **Exemptions for religious objectors, undocumented immigrants, prisoners, those earning less than the poverty line, members of Indian tribes, and hardship cases (determined by HHS). Bill: PPACA; Page: 317-337.

According to nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) data, roughly 75 percent of these so-called penalties (ruled to be “taxes” by the Supreme Court) will fall on the middle class. Bill: PPACA; Page: 345-346

Tax on Small Businesses and Self-employed Individuals (Takes effect Jan. 2014):

Starting in January of 2014, a new annual tax will be imposed on “most of the country’s 5.8 million small businesses and 15 million self-employed individuals,” according to the National Federal of Independent Business. The new tax is disguised as a tax on “health insurers.” Though it may look like insurers are bearing the burdens of this tax because they physically write the checks, the nonpartisan CBO rightly warned Congress that the new tax “would be largely passed through to consumers in the form of higher premiums for private coverage.” I’m a cosponsor of legislation to repeal this new tax. Bill: PPACA; Page: 1,986-1,993

I support an open and deliberative debate about ways in which our health care system can be reformed at the federal level. I believe the few good ideas in ObamaCare should be added to a new bill that is not 2,400 pages and which the American people have been given an opportunity to read, study, and give input on before Congress votes on it. I stand by the idea that it’s absolutely imperative that we repeal ObamaCare and replace it with the best ideas from the current law combined with patient-centered, patient-controlled reforms that would make access easier and costs lower."
Virginia readers are welcome to subscribe to Morgan Griffith's e-newsletter for yourselves, which means you may get them before I do. (You can use an office address--I do--but you must provide an actual address in Virginia.) Click here to sign up:

https://morgangriffith.house.gov/contact/contactform.htm