Will wonders never cease: Democrats discover taxes hurt businesses!
How cute: Fifteen Democratic senators who voted for Obamacare back in 2009 are asking Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to see that the excise tax on medical devices is not implemented for now.
Read their letter here. It ticks all the usual boxes for the kind of anti-tax arguments that Democrats typically reject out of hand:
- The industry “directly employs over 400,000 people in the United States and is responsible for a total of two million high-skilled manufacturing jobs.”
- The industry “is also one of the few that enjoys a net trade surplus…”
- Our economy has a need for “increasing exports, promoting small businesses, and growing high-tech manufacturing jobs for the future…”
- The slapdash way in which Obamacare was constructed, with major decisions punted to an unaccountable bureaucracy to make (OK, that’s not exactly how the senators put it), has caused “significant uncertainty and confusion for businesses.”
- Rather than moving forward with another punitive tax on a particular industry, it would be preferable “to develop a long-term solution to help move our economy forward, reduce our debt and reform our tax code…”
- Not moving forward with this tax “will benefit patients, innovators and boost our country’s economic growth.”
All of which are arguments that would have been helpful for these Democrats to make three years ago when they were rushing to pass Obamacare in the first place. Conservatives made these very same arguments at the time, only to have Democrats ram the law through Congress anyway.
It turns out that some of these senators represent states where the medical-device industry is particularly important. I guess they had to pass the bill to find out what was in it.
– By Kyle Wingfield
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356 comments Add your comment
Glenn Beck
December 11th, 2012
6:01 pm
Stephenson
Still bitter huh?
Stephenson Billings
December 11th, 2012
6:01 pm
Why don’t they just suck it up and pay them? :rolleyes:
Rich Gain as Companies Seek to Beat Obama Tax Increases
“More than 150 companies, from Costco Wholesale Corp. to Las Vegas Sands Corp. (LVS), have declared special dividends totaling about $20 billion this quarter to avoid anticipated tax increases in 2013, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Others, including law and private-equity firms, probably will pay bonuses, partnership distributions and commissions early for tax reasons, according to Lou Crandall, chief economist at Wrightson ICAP LLC in Jersey City, New Jersey.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-10/rich-gain-as-companies-seek-to-beat-obama-tax-increases.html
Glenn Beck
December 11th, 2012
6:02 pm
Stephenson
But don’t you fret. You have plenty of company right on this blog
@@
December 11th, 2012
6:03 pm
Wonders upon wonders.
Court strikes down Illinois concealed carry ban
Gun rights advocates were thrilled by the decision. They have long argued that the prohibition violates the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment and what they see as Americans’ right to carry guns for self-defense.
“Christmas came early for law-abiding gun owners,” said state Rep. Brandon Phelps, a Democratic lawmaker from southern Illinois whose proposed legislation approving concealed carry narrowly lost in the Legislature last year. “It’s a mandate.”
It’s a mandate?
Too funny.
Stephenson Billings
December 11th, 2012
6:04 pm
Bitter? No. Disappointed the electorate decided they wanted 4 more years. But hey, I guess they like their part time temp jobs.
Stephenson Billings
December 11th, 2012
6:09 pm
Ah yes, those tolerant libs. Maybe they should move to Colorado for some legal pot:
Democrats threaten violence on Michigan House floor
http://washingtonexaminer.com/article/2515629#.UMe804PBeE-
JamVet
December 11th, 2012
6:10 pm
Billings,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scVJL19akH0
saywhat?
December 11th, 2012
6:10 pm
But hey, I guess they like their part time temp jobs
——————————————————-
Far more than their full time nonexistent jobs under Bush, Im sure they do.
MarkV
December 11th, 2012
6:11 pm
Dear Dusty,
I hope you had a successful Christmas shopping, so that we can expect a significant jump in the economy.
But now you are back in full vigor, promoting austerity and condemning deficit. I noticed an interesting phrase about Democrats wanting to “take more money from the moneymakers.” Would you care to share with us your definition of “moneymakers?”
Stephenson Billings
December 11th, 2012
6:12 pm
Gotta get all those evil rich people:
526,421 family farms threatened by new death tax
“New legislation that jumps the death tax to 55 percent of estates exceeding $1 million threatens 526,421 family farms, of about 25 percent of all farms in America, according to a Senate analysis”
http://washingtonexaminer.com/632281-family-farms-threatened-by-new-death-tax/article/2515658#.UMe9foPBeE9
Stephenson Billings
December 11th, 2012
6:13 pm
“Far more than their full time nonexistent jobs under Bush, Im sure they do”
Yea, that 4% unemployment was a b^tch
@@
December 11th, 2012
6:14 pm
AmVet:
Me in free fall? Not at all.
One thing’s for sure….you wouldn’t have far to fall.
You’ve been occupying the same toadstool for ‘lo these many years.
You’re like a fungus.
schnirt
carlosgvv
December 11th, 2012
6:18 pm
Stephenson Billings – 5:32
I must have missed it here that Kyle has appointed you to be his official truth-o-meter.
md
December 11th, 2012
6:21 pm
“I mean how dare people organize and fight for better wages and or benefits
That isn’t America.
They should take whatever pay their corporate paymasters give them and shut up about it.”
So the alternative is to shut up and do as the union masters say….too funny.
I thought the left was all about pro-choice? I guess that excludes unions huh?
Bruno
December 11th, 2012
6:22 pm
For my love:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZZcZHWw9eM
killerj
December 11th, 2012
6:23 pm
Less Government = Less Taxes
Ray
December 11th, 2012
6:27 pm
I skimmed all 2,000 plus pages because my life depended on it. Make all the jokes you want, Kyle, but access to health care insurance is serious matter, life saving for many, many Americans.
Stephenson Billings
December 11th, 2012
6:34 pm
“but access to health care insurance is serious matter, life saving for many, many Americans”
except for those 30 million or so who will still not have insurance. or those of us who will be dumped onto the gov’t plan because our employers will choose to pay the penalty instead (or worse lose our job because of the new taxes/regulations). or all of those who will be exempt from the mandate.
Bruno
December 11th, 2012
6:35 pm
but access to health care insurance is serious matter, life saving for many, many Americans
Ray–There’s no doubt that we have serious problems in our health care system, affordability being the main concern. And while the Dems may deserve some credit for attempting to address the issue, unfortunately they chose the most costly, most problematic “solution” available, which will likely handicap our economy.
Bruno
December 11th, 2012
6:39 pm
except for those 30 million or so who will still not have insurance. or those of us who will be dumped onto the gov’t plan because our employers will choose to pay the penalty instead (or worse lose our job because of the new taxes/regulations). or all of those who will be exempt from the mandate.
See md’s 6:21. Libs claim to be all about “alternatives” and “pro-choice”, yet in the end they’re not. Which is why they still struggle with the concept of “unintended consequences”.
Stephenson Billings
December 11th, 2012
6:40 pm
some good news (I thnk)
APOCALYPSE CANCELED!: EARLIEST MAYAN CALENDAR FOUND
http://www.secretsofthefed.com/apocalypse-canceled-earliest-mayan-calendar-found/
Bob
December 11th, 2012
6:46 pm
@Ray “but access to health care insurance is serious matter, life saving for many, many Americans.”
Really Ray, health insurance saves lives ? Why do many people with health insurance die ? I think access to healthcare saves more lives than having health insurance. Illegals that do not have health insurance are receiving transplants in America because even the poor illegals have access to healthcare.
Stephenson Billings
December 11th, 2012
6:50 pm
Obamacare just raised your health care premium by $63
“Among the regulations being rushed out the door by the Department of Health and Human Services 32 months after Obamacare passed is a requirement that every plan in America be subject to a $63 fee. That $63 is part of a fund to subsidize people with pre-existing conditions, who are more expensive to cover but whose costs must be transferred to healthier individuals in the new system.”
http://hotair.com/archives/2012/12/11/obamacare-just-raised-your-health-care-premium-by-63/
MarkV
December 11th, 2012
6:50 pm
It would be interesting to hear the rationale of the employers, who will let the employees “be dumped onto the gov’t plan” because the “employers will choose to pay the penalty instead.”
Their message to the employees must go something like this:
Dear employees: You have had as a benefit for the employees of this company a health insurance plan, to which we contributed, as part your compensation, a major part of the premium. But since we will have to pay a penalty if we drop this benefit, we will indeed cut your compensation and rather pay that penalty.
Stephenson Billings
December 11th, 2012
6:51 pm
Remember this gem from Obama?
“I will sign a universal health care bill into law by the end of my first term as president that will cover every American and cut the cost of a typical family’s premium by up to $2,500 a year.”
Wow. What a doozie that one is.
Stephenson Billings
December 11th, 2012
6:59 pm
MarkV @ 6:50:
I see pointing the blame at the employers instead of the gov’t for imposing more strict and expensive regulations/taxes has started.
Stephenson Billings
December 11th, 2012
7:01 pm
But I guess they could just lay employees off or delay expansion of said company or reduce working hours or outsourcing to contractors…. all of which is happening now because of Obamacare.
Old timer
December 11th, 2012
7:01 pm
Cheesy….no one will be glad when we sink to the low of most European countries cause we are broke and can no longer pay for anything…look at Greece, Spain…
@@
December 11th, 2012
7:21 pm
Contractor building federal Obamacare exchange has a big ol’ conflict of interest
Who knew?
MarkV
December 11th, 2012
7:22 pm
Stephenson Billings @ 6:59 pm
I see a failure to respond in a rational way.
md
December 11th, 2012
7:23 pm
I find it interesting watching union workers being interviewed on tv and when asked what it is all about they say “attacking worker rights”.
Maybe someone sympathetic to unions can explain to me how giving a worker a choice in regards to employment equates to attacking that workers rights………seems it may be attacking the structure of the union and it’s powers that be, but hardly the workers rights.
md
December 11th, 2012
7:31 pm
“Really, the one thing that actually works, state run communism may not be your cup of tea, but their government works.””
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/head-of-obamas-jobs-council-state-run-communism-actually-works/
Someone needs to talk with Mr Immelt. Of course it works, they pay the people $1.50 an hour……….
JamVet
December 11th, 2012
7:41 pm
In 1933 Adolph Hitler ended collective bargaining and any other rights that unions usually called for and drastically lowered wages in Germany.
The Republicans, beginning with Reagan, have been trying to figure out a way to do it here.
One of the reasons they will hopefully keep getting crushed every other November…
Rafe Hollister preparing for an Obamanist America
December 11th, 2012
7:41 pm
Libs should be ecstatic, Michigan has gone Pro Choice. Dems are Pro Choice, right?
Michael H. Smith
December 11th, 2012
7:46 pm
And, the icing on the crony cake? At the time QSSI got its contract, “the director of Obamacare’s newly established Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight (CCIIO) — which the Hill describes as ‘the office tasked with crafting rules for the national exchange’ — was Steve Larsen.” Larsen left CCIIO in June and got a job with—guess who?— UnitedHealth Group. To be exact, he took a job with Optum, the exact subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group that bought QSSI.
Thanks for the link @@, kind of renews ones reason to remain confident in government’s inabilities to do much of anything considered as the “honest good”.
And these socialists gub’ment zombies worship feeding their corrupt government monster with more and more taxes without any question.
Smaller the government, smaller the corruption.
Michael H. Smith
December 11th, 2012
7:54 pm
Libs should be ecstatic, Michigan has gone Pro Choice. Dems are Pro Choice, right?
md
December 11th, 2012
8:07 pm
“In 1933 Adolph Hitler ended collective bargaining and any other rights that unions usually called for and drastically lowered wages in Germany.”
A guy I know by the name of Am would call this “tripe”. No one is calling for the end of collective bargaining unless one equates worker choice with same.
Those that choose to be in a union, pay the dues and abide by their rules are quite free to send whoever they want in to the bargaining table, no one is trying to limit that.
But it is a bit sad when folks think limiting individual liberties is a good thing.
Michael H. Smith
December 11th, 2012
8:07 pm
How did Adolph Hitler rise to totalitarian power in Germany but by using Socialism and worker unions?
By the way, what is the acronym for National Democratic Socialists Worker’s Party?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_Party
Sieg Heil brucie!
Linda`
December 11th, 2012
8:08 pm
pizzaman@5:22, More Republican propaganda? The letter was from Democrats.
Rafe Hollister preparing for an Obamanist America
December 11th, 2012
8:17 pm
Obviously this must have been reviewed by the courts, but how did we ever arrive in a situation where, in some states, a worker has no choice about whether union dues are withheld from his paycheck? Definitely anti American, bordering on legalized slavery.
MrLiberty
December 11th, 2012
8:21 pm
Now if we could just get republicans to realize that every penny spent with the military industrial complex does NOT add to our security and that MUCH of it is completely wasted; that there is absolutely a HUGE difference between free market capitalism and the corporatism/fascism that they so heartily support; that many of the “rich” made their money feeding at the public trough and while tax rates or actual taxes on them should not go up, their source of income (government spending) should be slashed by HUGE amounts; that the Federal Reserve and our fiat currency is the root of every major economic problem we have faced since they were established in 1913; that a sound currency (backed by gold/silver, etc.) is the BEST mechanism to limit government spending and also the best way to insure consistent economic health of a nation.
It is certainly great that some democrats are beginning to clue in. It would be nice if republicans could do the same. America cannot take much more of this two-party economic ignorance we now are faced with.
@@
December 11th, 2012
8:25 pm
AmVet:
In 1933 Adolph Hitler ended collective bargaining and any other rights that unions usually called for and drastically lowered wages in Germany.
Only after he delivered this in a 1927 speech:
“We are socialists, we are enemies of today’s capitalistic economic system for the exploitation of the economically weak, with its unfair salaries, with its unseemly evaluation of a human being according to wealth and property instead of responsibility and performance, and we are all determined to destroy this system under all conditions.”
It’s a progressive thing, don’tcha know.
schnirt
Georgia , The "New Mississippi"
December 11th, 2012
8:31 pm
Come on Kyle,,
Your President, Barrack Hussein Obama has always said he was open to tweaking and changes in Obamacare. The vote in 2009 was a take it or leave situation with no input from Republicans that could have made the bill better. We will go over the Fiscal Cliff with no input from Republicans other than the big idea for sequestration. and ” cut taxes for job creators “
JamVet
December 11th, 2012
8:33 pm
No one is calling for the end of collective bargaining..
And then right on cue Michael H. Fascist and Ms. Goebbels pipe in.
Good work Rip van Republican.
As long as you thugs keep losing three out of every four national elections, it’s all good by me…
@@
December 11th, 2012
8:38 pm
Who said this, AmVet?
“Let us consider the actual, worldly Jew — not the Sabbath Jew, as Bauer does, but the everyday Jew. Let us not look for the secret of the Jew in his religion, but let us look for the secret of his religion in the real Jew. What is the secular basis of Judaism? … Practical need, self-interest. What is the worldly religion of the Jew? Huckstering. What is his worldly God? Money. Very well then! Emancipation from huckstering and money, consequently from practical, real Jewry, would be the self-emancipation of our time… In the final analysis, the emancipation of the Jews is the emancipation of mankind from Jewry”.
Was it Hitler?
Nope! It was none other than Karl Marx.
Marx and Hitler…two sides of the same coin.
@@
December 11th, 2012
8:41 pm
AmVet comes off as simple when called upon. I’ve always given her more credit than she deserves.
Georgia
December 11th, 2012
8:42 pm
Postcards from the fiscal cliff: Boehner sent a counter counter-proposal to Obama after the markets closed. Greenspan labeled the partisanship as scary, ans said that a deal would be reached, but that it will get hairy first. Remember how this guy used to talk in a jargon nobody could fathom? It’s a liitle unnerving to finally understand him.
Glenn Beck
December 11th, 2012
8:59 pm
the blaze
Isn’t that my website?
hahahahahahahaha
Mr black helicopter conspiracy himself…….
bluecoat
December 11th, 2012
9:05 pm
Broken t pots,Obamaphones,grits with donkey cheese spread all over and you continue to complain.
Lil' Barry Bailout - OBAMAPHONE!!!
December 11th, 2012
9:20 pm
Stephenson Billings: I wonder where the gov’t gets the money to pay them all….
—————
Just think of the teachers that could be hired, the health care that could be provided, the interest that could be reduced on student loans, the help we could provide to the disabled, and the hand up we could give the least fortunate among us if that money wasn’t being spent on federal employees.
Obozo: Hiring bureaucrats on the backs of the poor.