Is the Obama Health-Care Law a Huge Tax Increase?
To Republicans, including presidential candidate Mitt Romney, the Affordable Care Act is a mega tax increase that will be paid by everyone from low income Americans and small businesses to gigantic corporations.
“Obamacare raises taxes on the American people by approximately $500 billion,” said Mr. Romney, responding to the Supreme Court’s historic health-care ruling outside the Capitol on Thursday.
For good measure, American Crossroads, the most influential of the conservative “super political-action committees,” is launching a national cable TV ad campaign Saturday that claims that health-care reform is a tax hike on the middle class.
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“Now it’s official,” the ad claims. “Obama increased taxes on struggling families. The middle class takes another hit.”
Are Romney and his conservative allies correct?
The short answer is a qualified yes. The health-care law does amount to a tax increase, but this increase will mainly hit high-income Americans, such as Romney, who has historically paid much lower tax rates than many middle-income Americans.