The Socialist State's Insatiable Demand for More Taxes

At the Orange County Register, "Taxpayers besieged on many sides":

When government coffers are flush, it's hard enough to reduce taxes. With deficits, public worker layoffs and municipal bankruptcies, expect an all-out assault for higher taxes.

The persistence of those demanding more taxes is typified by the June ballot's failed $1-per-pack tax increase on cigarettes in California, whose backers, despite losing by nearly 30,000 votes, now demand a recount.

he epitome of relentless demand for more taxes is the Affordable Care Act. What Congress and President Barack Obama promised was a penalty for not buying government-approved insurance, the U.S. Supreme Court says is a tax – actually a tax increase because it didn't exist before. Obamacare bundles 20 new taxes, incredible in variety and ingenuity, ranging from disallowing previous deductions for charitable hospitals and tax increases on biofuel to taxing medical device manufacturers and a surtax on investments. Obamacare's new taxes are listed at the website of Americans for Tax Reform: bit.ly/LGAD2d.

While critics say Obamacare may be history's largest tax increase, there will be a comparable hit if the Bush-era tax cuts are allowed to expire Jan. 1. The 10-percent income tax bracket would rise to 15 percent. The next four brackets each would increase 3 percentage points, and the top 35 percent bracket would go to 39.6 percent, according to Yahoo Finance. Taxes on capital gains and dividends would jump from 15 percent to 20 percent and 39.6 percent, respectively. The marriage penalty also would increase.

More at the link.