CBO: Obamacare Will Have Middle Class Tax Penalty: Avg. $1,200

Today in Washington, D.C. - Sept. 20, 2012:
The Senate reconvened at 9:30 AM today.  This morning, Senate Republicans delivered a coordinated round of speeches on the Senate floor today regarding the do-nothing approach by Senate Democrats and the President's refusal to lead while blaming others for his policy failures. Read Comments & Watch their speeches.

At 2 PM, the Senate began voting on the motion to proceed to H.J. Res. 117, the House-passed continuing resolution (CR) to fund the government through March. Additional votes are possible today.

Yesterday, Senate Democrats failed to get the 60 votes needed to waive a Budget Act point of order against to the Murray substitute amendment to S. 3457, the Veterans Jobs Corps bill. They also voted 76-22 to invoke cloture (cut off debate) on the motion to proceed to H.J. Res. 117.

Today, at 2 PM, the Senate will begin voting on the motion to proceed to H.J. Res. 117, the House-passed continuing resolution (CR) to fund the government through March. Additional votes are also possible.

The House reconvened at 10:00 AM today and at present has debated and passed H.Res 788 permitting them to take up and debate H. Res. 788 - Providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the rule submitted by the Office of Family Assistance of the Administration for Children and Families of the Department of Health and Human Services relating to waiver and expenditure authority under section 1115 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1315) with respect to the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program.

Yesterday the House addressed a marathon of bills. They passed by Voice Vote the following bills:
H. Res. 786 — "Honoring the four United States public servants who died in Libya and condemning the attacks on United States diplomatic facilities in Libya, Egypt, and Yemen."
H Res 526 — A resolution expressing the sense of the House of Representatives with respect toward the establishment of a more peaceful and democratic Georgian Republic.
HR 1461 — Mescalero Apache Tribe Water Right Leasing Authorization Act
HR 2827 — A bill to amend the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to regulation of municipal advisors
HR 2903 — FEMA reauthorization
HR 3319 — A bill to allow the Pascua Yaqui Tribe to determine the tribe membership requirements.
HR 3783 — Countering Iran in the Western Hemisphere Act
HR 4124 — Veteran Emergency Medical Technician Support Act
HR 4158 — A bill to confirm ownership rights for certain U.S. astronauts to artifacts from the astronauts' space missions.
HR 4212 — Addressing contaminated drywall  - banned designated drywall manufactured in China
HR 5910 — Global Investment in American Jobs Act
HR 5948 — Veterans Fiduciary Reform Act
HR 6060 — Endangered Fish Recovery Programs Extension Act
HR 6118 — Taking Essential Steps for Testing Act
HR 6163 — National Pediatric Research Network Act
HR 6296 — Disaster Loan Fairness Act
HR 6324 — Cutting Federal Unnecessary and Expensive Leasing (Cutting FUEL) Act of 2012
HR 6361 — Vulnerable Veterans Housing Reform Act
HR 6368 — Boarder security -  To require the Department of Justice, in consultation with the Department of Homeland Security, to provide a report to Congress on the Departments' ability to track, investigate and quantify cross-border violence along the Southwest Border and provide recommendations to Congress on how to accurately track, investigate, and quantify cross-border violence."
HR 6375 — VA Major Construction Authorization and Expiring Authorities Extension Act
HR 6410 — To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide for taxpayers making donations with their returns of income tax to the Federal Government to pay down the public debt.
HR 6431 — To provide flexibility with respect to United States support for assistance provided by international financial institutions for Burma, and for other purposes

HR 733— Pancreatic Cancer Research and Education Act

The House passed by Recorded  Vote:
HR 5044 (400-0) — Andrew P. Carpenter Tax Act - amended IRS Code of 1986 to exclude from gross income any discharge of indebtedness income on education loans of deceased veterans.
HR 5912 (310-95) — A bill to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to ban the use of public funds for political party conventions, and tor eturn previously distributed funds for deficit reduction.

The House addressed and postponed the vote on  HR 5987  — A bill to establish the Manhattan Project National Historical Park

Yesterday, the AP reported, “Nearly 6 million Americans - significantly more than first estimated- will face a tax penalty under President Barack Obama's health overhaul for not getting insurance, congressional analysts said Wednesday. Most would be in the middle class. The new estimate amounts to an inconvenient fact for the administration, a reminder of what critics see as broken promises. The numbers from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office are 50 percent higher than a previous projection by the same office in 2010, shortly after the law passed.”

“Average penalty: about $1,200 in 2016,” the AP writes. And according to CBO, four out of five who will pay penalty have an adjusted gross income of less than $123,000.

The AP notes, “[I]n his first campaign for the White House, Obama pledged not to raise taxes on individuals making less than $200,000 a year and couples making less than $250,000.” And recall in 2009 ABC’s George Stephanopoulos asked the president, “Under this mandate, the government is forcing people to spend money, fining you if you don't. How is that not a tax?” Obama replied, “No. That’s not true, George. . . . [F]or us to say that you've got to take a responsibility to get health insurance is absolutely not a tax increase.”

The middle class tax increase embedded in Obamacare is even more harmful given recent reports on middle class income sliding over the last few years. Just last week, The Washington Post reported, “The middle class lost ground again last year, falling to an all-time low in their share of how much income they take in . . . .” And today, The Wall Street Journal writes, “The income of the typical U.S. family fell or was flat in almost every state last year, with the drop particularly steep in places where the economy has been hit hard by the housing bust. The median annual household income—the point on the income scale at which half earn more and half earn less—fell in 18 states in 2011 from a year earlier after adjusting for inflation, according to a Census Bureau report to be released Thursday. The sharpest drop occurred in Nevada, where median income fell by 6%. The median fell by 3.8% in California and by 2.9% in Arizona and Florida.”

Reacting to yesterday’s CBO report, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said, “For years, the President and his Democrat allies in Congress have sworn up and down that failing to comply with the individual mandate did not result in a tax on individuals or families. And the reason was obvious: if Americans knew that failure to comply resulted in a tax hike, it never would have passed. And now the non-partisan CBO makes clear that the tax will hit 6 million Americans—mainly middle-class individuals and families. This is just one more reason among many for why Obamacare must be repealed.”

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