Obama's Biggest Supporters to Get Whacked With 59% Tax Rate

Um, I don't think this is change they can believe in.

Congressional plans to fund a massive health-care overhaul could have a job-killing effect on New York, creating a tax rate of nearly 60 percent for the state's top earners and possibly pressuring small-business owners to shed workers.

New York's top income bracket could reach as high as 57 percent -- rates not seen in three decades -- to pay for the massive health coverage proposed by House Democrats this week.

The top rate in New York City, home to many of the state's wealthiest people, would be 58.68 percent, the Washington-based Tax Foundation said in a report yesterday.

That means New York's top earners, small-business owners and most dynamic entrepreneurs will be facing new fees and penalties.

The $544 billion tax hike would violate one of President Obama's ironclad campaign promises: No family will pay higher tax rates than they would have paid in the 1990s.

Oh, so he lied? There's a stunner. If you're a New Yorker, click the image above if you really want the depressing details. But don't complain to me. We tried to warn you, but you voted for Obama in overwhelming numbers.

Meanwhile, if you think you can somehow keep your own insurance, think again.

The nonpartisan Lewin Group estimated in April that 120 million or more Americans could lose their group coverage at work and end up in such a program. That would leave private carriers with 50 million or fewer customers. This could cause the market to, as Lewin Vice President John Sheils put it, "fizzle out altogether."

What wasn't known until now is that the bill itself will kill the market for private individual coverage by not letting any new policies be written after the public option becomes law.

The legislation is also likely to finish off health savings accounts, a goal that Democrats have had for years. They want to crush that alternative because nothing gives individuals more control over their medical care, and the government less, than HSAs.

With HSAs out of the way, a key obstacle to the left's expansion of the welfare state will be removed.

The public option won't be an option for many, but rather a mandate for buying government care. A free people should be outraged at this advance of soft tyranny.

Washington does not have the constitutional or moral authority to outlaw private markets in which parties voluntarily participate. It shouldn't be killing business opportunities, or limiting choices, or legislating major changes in Americans' lives.

It took just 16 pages of reading to find this naked attempt by the political powers to increase their reach. It's scary to think how many more breaches of liberty we'll come across in the final 1,002.

Is it any wonder they're trying to ram this monstrosity through before people even know what they're in for?

Democrats always claim they're pro-choice. Of course, that's a total lie.

Plenty of juicy and unpleasant details will come dribbling out over the next few days, as analysts and reporters plow through the mind-numbing texts and parse the fine print. But the basic picture is clear -- and it's ugly.

If President Obama signs either bill into law, he'll be breaking a host of promises. Neither the House nor Senate would guarantee that you can keep your private health plan if you like it. Or that patients will retain their relationships with their doctors.

And that bit about cutting the typical family's health costs by $2,500 a year? A howler, if there ever was one. Deficit neutrality? Level playing field for plan competition? Fuhgeddaboudit.

More on this monstrosity here.

As Obama and the Democrats further slip in approval ratings it's clear they realize their only chance they have to socialize a huge portion of our economy is quickly evaporating, so expect a full-court press in the next several weeks. People spending their summer not paying attention to what's going on in Washington are in for a very rude awakening once they realize their freedom is gone.

All in the name of change.