UPDATE: ATR Double Rate on Healthcare
Now Applies to Senate Bill Passage

With the news today that the House Democrat leadership has dropped the "deem and pass" tactic, this post serves as official notice that ATR is transferring our "will double-rate" on the measure from the rule to the final passage of the Senate healthcare bill.

We reserve the right to score at a later date any other votes taken this weekend,

Read More | Comments (0) | Permalink | Email | Print | Tags: KEYVOTE, HEALTHCARE

NJ Governor Proposes Some Serious Cuts

Click "Read More" to continue.

photo credit: Hoboken Condos

Read More | Comments (0) | Permalink | Email | Print | Tags: TAXES, SPENDING, BUDGET, NewJersey, State

Full List of Backroom Health Deals in
"Deem and Pass" Healthcare Bill

(This content originally appeared on GOP.gov)

"These negotiations will be on C-Span, and so the public will be part of the conversation and we'll see the choices that are being made."

On Wednesday, March 17, 2010, House Majority Leader said that, "We're going to have a clean up or down vote on the Senate bill-that will be on the rule."  According to Majority Leader, any Member who votes for the health care takeover rule will also be voting "straight up" for all of the bill's special deals.

Backroom Deals In the Democrats Health Care Takeover

Cornhusker Kickback:  Perhaps the most well known in the Senate bill, the provision, included at the behest of Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE), ensures that Nebraska would be the only state to have the full amount of its increased Medicaid costs paid for by the federal government.

The Louisiana Purchase:  The Senate bill provides extra Medicaid funding for any state in which every county has been declared a disaster area.  Because of Hurricane Katrina, Louisiana is the only state that would qualify for the money.  The $300 million provision for Louisiana was slipped in late in the process to persuade Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) to support the health care takeover.

Gator Aid:  At the request of Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fl), the Senate bill includes a formula for protecting certain Medicare Advantage enrollees from billions in cuts.  The formula would only apply to five states, most notably to Florida in which 800,000 of the state's one million Medicare Advantage users would be exempt from cuts.

New England Handouts:  In addition to the $100 million included in federal Medicaid payments for Nebraska, the bill provides two New England states with even more money Medicaid funding.  According to CBO, the Senate bill now contains about $600 million in extra Medicaid cash to Vermont, and about $500 million in additional money for Medicaid to Massachusetts, making these three states the only to receive such funding.  Despite claims that these cushy extras for a few states would be scaled back, reports indicate that the White House is still making deals so these states can keep the handouts.

The Dodd Clinic:  Section 10502(a) of the bill provides $100 million for construction at an unnamed "health care facility" affiliated with an academic health center at a public research university in a state with only one public academic medical and dental school.  Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) later sent a press release saying that he was securing the money for the University of Connecticut, and then Dodd bragged that, "These provisions will bring millions of dollars to the state so that Connecticut's residents can receive quality, affordable health care."

Montana Medicare Earmark:  A provision slipped into the Senate bill by Finance Committee Chair Max Baucus (D-MT), Section 1881A(b)(2), specifically expands Medicare coverage for individuals who reside "in or around the geographic area subject to an emergency declaration made as of June 17, 2009." The area the bill refers to is an asbestos contaminated area near Libby, Montana, for which Sen. Max Baucus has been trying to secure funding for years.

PDF Version

Read More | Comments (2) | Permalink | Email | Print | Tags: HEALTHCARE

Government Run Healthcare In Reality

Just in case you have missed all the evidence we have previously presented on exactly how socialized medicine - the ultimate goal of congressional liberals - works in reality, here's yet another example from Britain's National Health Service: the poster child for liberals everywhere:

A quarter of health trusts failed to meet standards over hospital infections while five were warned over blood-spattered walls and mouldy instruments under a toughened regulatory regime, the Guardian has learned. Of particular concern was the state of ambulances, which were inspected for the first time. Investigators found dirty forceps stored in some vehicles as well as bloodstains.

Of the 167 trusts inspected, 42 were found by the commission to be in "breach" of NHS registration requirements by not meeting standards. All 11 ambulance trusts in England were assessed – and four found to have violated the terms of their NHS contracts.

 

The reasons for failure were worrying: 36 trusts were not providing areas to decontaminate instruments; in three trusts there was a failure to regularly flush unused water outlets – crucial for the control of legionella infections; and 13 trusts were criticised for not keeping clinical areas clean.

Charming isn't it? And that's just the start of it. Well, get used to it. Because this is exactly what's to come in a few years here if the radical leftist ideologies in Congress get their way.

Read More | Comments (0) | Permalink | Email | Print

Tennessee Takes Heat for Proposing Tax on Free Breakfast

We're used to legislators proposing all kinds of crazy-tax hikes to make up for their overspending, but at times even we are surprised. And this is one of those times.

Tennessee legislators have proposed a tax on ... wait for it ... free breakfasts. Yes, that's right, free breakfasts. As in, they want to impose a special tax on something that is free. How a tax (of up to 9.75%) tax will be imposed on something that is free might seem puzzling to, well, anyone with an ounce of logic, but tax-hikers have decided they will just arbitrarily impose values upon them. 

To make the whole situation even more farcical, "state officials stress that the businesses would be taxed and not the hungry patrons." Right. Because taxes never get passed on do they now? Of course businesses would never recoup their losses.

In the real world, this will mean less tourism, higher costs for customers, and bad news from the Tennessee economy all right. Let us hope legislators see reason and vote down this farcical proposal.

Read More | Comments (1) | Permalink | Email | Print

What Would Investment Tax Rates Be
Under the House Reconciliation Bill?

If the House votes for the rule on the budget reconciliation bill this Sunday, the Senate's Christmas Eve healthcare bill gets sent to President Obama's desk and becomes law.

That's the main fight right now.

However, it pays to look ahead to the House's suggested "improvements" to the Senate healthcare bill which are contained in the reconciliation bill.  One of these "improvements" is a 3.8% surtax on "unearned" (investment) income in households making more than $250,000 ($200,000 for singles).  

What would the various top tax rates on investment income rise to under this "improvement?"

*Other unearned income (for surtax purposes) includes gross income from interest, annuities, royalties, net rents, and passive income in partnerships and Subchapter-S corporations.  It does not include municipal bond interest or life insurance proceeds, since those do not add to gross income.  It does not include active trade or business income, fair market value sales of ownership in pass-through entities, or distributions from retirement plans.  The 3.8% surtax does not apply to non-resident aliens.

Permalink and PDF

Read More | Comments (2) | Permalink | Email | Print | Tags: TAXES, HEALTHCARE

ATR Will Double-Rate A Vote AGAINST
Rule "Deeming" Senate Health Bill
As Passed

This Sunday, the U.S. House of Representatives will be voting on a budget reconciliation bill.  The contents of that bill, while damaging to the economy, are secondary in importance to the rule which will precede consideration of the bill itself.

The procedural rule will “deem as passed” the Senate healthcare bill which passed that chamber in December.  This is the same bill which contains the “Cornhusker Kickback,” “Gator-Aid,” and all the other shady backroom deals.  It contains 19 tax hikes totaling $500 billion.  It is loaded with phony and unrealistic budget gimmicks which hide the true cost of the bill from taxpayers.

Most importantly, passage of the rule will directly result in sending the Senate “Christmas Eve” healthcare bill to the President’s desk for his signature.  If the rule passes, government-run healthcare becomes law.

A vote for the rule is a vote to directly, actually, and permanently enact government-run healthcare into law. 

ATR WILL DOUBLE RATE A VOTE AGAINST THE RULE SINCE ITS PASSAGE WOULD RESULT IN GOVERNMENT-RUN HEALTHCARE BECOMING LAW

PDF Version

Read More | Comments (2) | Permalink | Email | Print

ATR Urges Georgia House Leadership to Vote for JOBS

With an unemployment rate of 10.5 percent Georgia needs real solutions to stimulate the economy. Today Americans for Tax Reform sent a letter to Georgia leadership urging legislators to support House Bill 1023, the Jobs, Opportunity and Business Success Act of 2010. The bill would cut taxes, create jobs, and spur economic growth in the Georgia.

Read More | Comments (0) | Permalink | Email | Print | Tags: TAXES, POLITICS, Georgia, State

Obamacare's 24 Percent Cap Gains Tax

The actual legislative language of the House Democrat reconciliation bill was released this afternoon. 

Keep in mind that this is not the "deemed" bill which passed the Senate already.  If the reconciliation bill passes the House, the Senate bill becomes law.

At that point, the House and Senate will start working on an "improvement" to the Senate healthcare bill from December (which would now be law).

The reconciliation language includes a 3.8 percent surtax on "unearned income," which includes capital gains.

The capital gains rate is already set to rise from 15 to 20 percent in 2011.

This surtax would result in a capital gains rate of 23.8 percent in 2014.

A 24 percent capital gains tax rate is an economy killer.

Read More | Comments (0) | Permalink | Email | Print

CFA in Budget & Tax News on the Alternative to President's Debt Panel

Cross-posted from www.fiscalaccountability.org

In the latest online version of the Heartland Institute's Budget & Tax News, CFA executive director Sandra Fabry writes about the dangerous flaws of the President's debt panel (which is modeled after the Conrad-Gregg commission proposal we have been arguing against for a long time), and points to a pro-taxpayer alternative in the form of a BRAC-style spending reform-only commission. Here's a snippet from the article:

Taxpayer advocates are proposing alternatives to President Barack Obama’s executive order establishing the so-called National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, a panel to recommend fast-tracked legislation making wholesale changes to government spending and the tax code.

Obama signed the order in February. The commission resembles one that had been proposed in the Senate but rejected.

Groups including the AFL-CIO and NAACP opposed the Senate plan because they feared welfare program cuts. On the other hand, taxpayer advocates pointed to the threat of higher taxes in the plan.

The taxpayer advocates are basing their concerns, which apply also to the President’s commission, on actual experience.

“In past budget deals, Congress has promised to cut spending later in exchange for tax increases now. Those spending cuts never actually happened,” said Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC). “Instead, the extra revenue just let Congress defer dealing with the tough structural problems behind the crisis. Taking tax increases off the table is the only way we will ever have real reform.”

Unfortunately, that does not seem to be what our Congressional leaders and the President have in mind when they talk about "reform."

Click here to read the full article. 

Read More | Comments (0) | Permalink | Email | Print | Tags: TAXES, SPENDING, TRANSPARENCY, Federal