I know you guys will get the hang of this sooner or later. Until then, I will shamelessly transfer mass distributed e-mails to postings on this blog. I received a forward from Mom which included a clipping from the The Spokesman-Review March 28, 2010 page 85 entitled Health Law's Heavy Impact by Paul Guppy. The article begins with a classic Speaker Pelosi quote, "We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it..." It then goes on to list some penalties and taxes that can alleged be expected from the Obama Health Care Bill in the coming years. Included with the clipping was the following text of unknown authorship:
Under the new health care bill - did you know that all real estate transactions are now subject to a 3.8% Sales Tax? The bulk of these new taxes don’t kick in until 2013 (presumably after Obama’s re-election). You can thank Nancy, Harry and Barack and your local Democrat Congressman for this one. If you sell your $400,000 home, there will be a $15,200 tax. This bill is set to screw the retiring generation who often downsize their homes. Is this “Hope & Change” great or what? We can vote the bums out in November and demand that they eliminate the bill or at the very least defund it. Then in 2012 repeal it.
Here, then, is Micaela's response to the e-mail:
This is not actually correct. According to snopes, this piece of the bill only affects you if: you sell your home for a PROFIT above the capital gains threshold of $250K per individual or $500K per couple...then you pay the additional 3.8% on any gain over this threshold.
For example, if a couple filing jointly earns over $250K per year (or an individual earning more than $125K) sells their a $2 million home and makes a $750,000 profit, they would be responsible for paying the 3.8% tax on the $250,000 over the capital gains threshold of $500,000, for a total of $9500.
Snopes states that the median sales price of existing single-family homes in the U.S. was $170,700 in March of 2010, and that roughly 1.5% of all U.S. households earn above $250,000. You may or may not agree with the new tax, but we should at least be clear about who it applies to; certainly no one I know.
Liz then responded with this comment:
Thanks Micaela for finding out the detail. When I read it I wondered, because if it had been a straight forward 3.8% tax it seems like we would have heard about it before now.
As for me, I am more interested in the broader debate on the issue of mandated health insurance than on the specifics of how portions of the bill will be funded. Near the end of the clipped article Paul Guppy writes "...Washington has joined 12 other states in a lawsuit challenging the federal government's power to force state residents to buy a product - insurance - from private companies."
This is the point on which I am personally conflicted. What is the ethical ramification of this law? Is it just to require private citizens to purchase health insurance? How is this any different from the requirement to purchase auto insurance? What else should the federal government mandate for the greater good of its citizens? Why should I, through the federal government, be involved in the process by which my neighbor pays his doctor for medical care? Is this a legitimate restriction of their liberty?
Here are my thoughts on the subject. The purpose of laws is to prevent innocent people from being harmed by the actions or inactions of others. However, all laws must be weighed against the extent to which they remove a person's liberty. In the case of auto insurance, the law only requires that a driver be insured against the damage they might do to another's property with their car while driving on public streets. This is a very specific circumstance. Most people who have insurance will pay for additional coverage, such as for their own property, but the law does not require that. The only way I can see justifying a mandate on personal health insurance is if you also require that I pay for your health care in the event that you do not. But this opens a whole other debate which I don't have the energy for right now.
~A
