Don Roach

One of the numbers Obama touted throughout his campaign was no tax increases for people making under $250,000/year. I was reading today on a blog written by the “Healthcare Economist” that seemed a bit troubling:

Tax credits for Health Insurance Premiums.  This will do nothing to change how much health care costs, it will just change who pays the premiums.  For middle class individuals, these subsidies will help make health insurance more affordable.  Because the wealthy won’t receive any subsidy (the maximum family income to be eligible for the credit is $88,000), they will simply pay higher taxes.

Is that right? If you are a family making more thant $88k/year you’ll pay extra in taxes? If that is the case, that’s a direct contradiction of one of Obama’s main campaign promises. The site Politifact gives him a pass saying:

Obama’s promise on the campaign trail may have been a bit of rhetorical excess based on his income tax plan, which seeks to exempt lower incomes from tax increases. [...] Still, it’s a tax increase. People who smoke will pay higher taxes under the measure that Obama signed. We added this promise to our database and rated it a Compromise.

I wonder what they’ll say about this, if it is true. Obama’s veracity aside, what do you think about having increased taxes if you make over $88,000? It’s not as if $88,000 makes you upperclass, you’re pretty much right in the middle of middle income.  Doesn’t that make you feel that you’re being sold a bill of goods and that Obama’s primary interest is pushing forth a leftist agenda versus protecting the middle class?

It certainly does to me.