Lately, I've been spending quite a bit of my boring time at work hanging out at the webpage for the Topeka Capital-Journal, my hometown's largest newspaper. The other commentators there are pretty evenly split between reasonable people and conservatives, and I've seen more or less this exchange repeat several times:
Conservative: ObamaCare is the largest tax increase in history!
Liberal: Interesting that you say that, because here's link and link and link saying it's not. What makes you say that it is?
Conservative: I won't answer your communist questions!
I imagine that this same exchange is repeating itself all over the internet since Limbaugh told the right that was the case.
So here's the deal: ObamaCare IS the largest tax increase in history. Say it loud. Own it.
Please, stick with me here while I'll just quote Limbaugh's argument (not linking to his page, so if you don't believe me, I guess I'll just link to a Google search for which his argument is the first result).
But guess who collects the tax?
Not the government. It's the insurance companies, the health insurance companies. For as long as they last, the health insurance companies are the ones that collect the tax. The IRS is going to enforce it; we have to buy health insurance. This is essentially being forced to pay a tax. It's just been called a tax. Insurance premiums have just been called a tax, folks. Premiums to buy health insurance. We must buy it. The government has the ability to levy that tax. We are going to buy health insurance from insurance companies mandated by the government.
Yup, that's it. That's the argument: ObamaCare is the largest tax increase in the history of whatever because now we're counting your insurance premiums as a tax. A tax you pay to a private company in exchange for a good or service. You know, like your cable tax and your internet tax.
And, as I said, we should own that.
In the United States, the average cost of health insurance for an individual is $5,280. Now, since other countries actually do use tax money for health insurance, we can use their per capita cost of providing health care to determine what their equivalent to our new magic tax is:
UK: $2992 -- fully socialized medical system.
Canada: $3,895 -- socialized health insurance only
Germany: $3,588 -- mostly-socialized health insurance; the matured version of the public option
France: $3,601 -- socialized health insurance, partially-socialized medical care.
So, in essence, if ObamaCare is the largest tax increase in American history, it would follow that going to a single-payer or even a robust public option would result in the largest tax cut in American history.
So, tell me: Am I missing anything?