[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 19]
[Senate]
[Page 26230]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      HEALTH CARE WEEK XV, DAY IV

  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, it was a signature assurance of the 
President's campaign: Middle-class Americans would see no new taxes of 
any kind under the new administration.
  It is a pledge he will have to break if the health care bill, as 
currently moving through Congress, makes its way to the President's 
desk and he signs it. We already know that the bill slashes seniors' 
Medicare, and study after study shows it is going to drive up premiums 
for people who already have insurance. Higher taxes will be the third 
painful blow to Americans already struggling in a recession.
  Here is a sample of the new taxes Americans are going to have to bear 
to finance more government health care. Anyone whose health care 
benefits are worth more than $8,000 or any family whose benefits are 
worth more than $21,000 will get a 40-percent excise tax. While backers 
like to call these ``high value'' or ``Cadillac'' plans, the new tax 
won't be indexed to keep pace with rising health care costs. So as time 
marches on, it won't just hit the so-called Cadillac plans but the 
``Buick and the Chevy'' plans, too--all the way down to tricycles. 
Eventually, this tax will hit all plans.
  Health insurers also get hit with a giant new nondeductible tax, 
which we know will get passed along to families in the form of higher 
premiums.
  The bill would tax life-saving medical devices such as heart stents 
and prosthetics. Prescription drugs get taxed, which we know patients 
will have to pay for in the form of higher drug costs and premiums.
  Tens of millions of American families who have experienced tax-saving 
benefits of Flexible Spending Accounts to pay for prescription drugs 
and other necessities will see those benefits wiped out under this 
plan. In an effort to redirect billions of dollars these families 
currently save through FSAs back to the government, FSAs would 
automatically be capped at $2,500 and then phased out over time. 
Anything families currently save by deducting more than that would go 
to the government instead.
  People who choose not to buy government-approved health insurance 
will get clobbered with a penalty as high as $1,500.
  Businesses would also get hit. According to the bill, any business 
with 50 or more employees that doesn't currently provide insurance to 
its employees will be forced to subsidize it at a significant cost per 
employee--all of which brings us back to the President's pledge.
  Would health care reform hit the pocketbooks of all the people who 
earn less than a quarter million dollars a year or wouldn't it? That is 
the question. You bet it would. I have listed some of the ways middle-
class Americans get hit under this plan. These are the ones we know 
about.
  But don't take it from me. The testimony of the independent, 
nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation could not be clearer. It looked 
at the taxes in the Finance Committee bill and found that nearly 80 
percent of the burden would fall on Americans earning less than 
$250,000 a year. Again, 80 percent of the burden would fall on those 
making less than $250,000 a year.
  Taxes on insurers and manufacturers will be passed right along to 
consumers, and the average income for people who have Flexible Saving 
Accounts is $55,000--hardly the wealthiest segment of Americans.
  Bottom line: If you have insurance, you get taxed. If you don't have 
insurance, you get taxed. If you are a struggling business owner who 
cannot afford insurance for your employees, you get taxed. If you use 
medical devices, you get taxed. If you buy over-the-counter medicine, 
you get taxed. In other words, Americans get taxed going and coming 
under the $1 trillion plan that is making its way through Congress.
  No wonder most Americans oppose this plan--higher premiums, higher 
taxes, and cuts to Medicare. This is not the reform America bargained 
for. In fact, it is no reform at all. It is a bill of goods being 
forced on the middle class when they can least afford it.
  Commonsense reforms and lower costs--that is what people want, and 
that is what they should get.
  Madam President, I yield the floor.

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