[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 20]
[House]
[Page 26972]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              TAX TAX TAX

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Poe) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. POE of Texas. Madam Speaker, there are brand new ways to tax 
people in this Federal health care bill. According to the Americans for 
Tax Reform, these new health care taxes will affect everyone. There are 
at least $700 billion in taxes in this takeover. It taxes small 
businesses; it taxes individuals.
  For the first time in history, Congress is going to require 
individuals to buy something. If this health care bill passes, citizens 
will be required to buy government-approved health insurance. If they 
don't buy that government-approved health insurance, they are going to 
have to pay a criminal fine. That violates the Fifth Amendment of the 
United States Constitution, the due process clause.
  If someone owns a small business, they will be required to pay about 
three-quarters of the cost of health insurance for their employees, 
whether they can afford it or not. Employees would be required to pay 
the rest of the government-approved health insurance, whether they can 
afford it or not.
  The government decides what a person can and cannot afford. Employers 
and employees who don't buy the government-approved insurance then have 
to pay this fine. This is a criminal penalty on citizens.
  There is also a new tax hike on flexible spending accounts and health 
savings accounts. Right now people can put as much pretax money as they 
want into one of these accounts to help pay for insurance. These 
accounts will get a $1.3 billion new tax. The new government-run health 
care bill won't let anyone buy over-the-counter drugs out of these 
accounts. All of the medicines that have been made easier to buy 
without a prescription are now going to be taxed. Now why, Madam 
Speaker, would the government discourage people from taking care of 
themselves and having these health savings accounts?
  The new health care bill also makes other legal tax deductions now 
illegal. This new tax is called the economic substance doctrine. Under 
this new health care bill, the IRS would be able to decide what a 
person was thinking when they bought something and they deducted it 
from their income tax as a business expense.
  What that means is my friend Sammy Mahan in Baytown, Texas, buys a 
new wrecker truck for his tow truck business, and he writes it off on 
his income tax as a business expense. The IRS would be able to decide 
what he was really thinking when he bought that wrecker truck. If the 
IRS decides he bought that new wrecker just to go fishing in it, they 
won't allow the tax write-off. And the IRS decides what he was 
thinking, not what he says. In fact, the IRS is presumed to know what 
he was thinking when he lawfully wrote off that truck as a business 
expense. These thought police may not approve his lawful tax deduction. 
This new rule not only penalizes Sammy for his thoughts, it penalizes 
him for what the government thinks his thoughts were; what Sammy was 
really thinking when he bought that wrecker truck anyway and claimed 
that lawful tax.
  Having tax thought police is strange enough, but what this is doing 
in a health care bill in the first place makes no sense. This ought to 
be in a separate piece of legislation to begin with. Do the taxacrats 
really think people will go out and have a heart valve replacement just 
to write it off their income tax?
  But there's also more. There is a new tax on medical devices, a 2.5 
percent tax on things like pacemakers and wheelchairs and hip 
replacement devices and new heart valves, lawful tax deductions for 
medical expenses that will be outlawed under this bill. So the tax 
thought police could not only deny a tax deduction for that heart valve 
replacement, but they could turn around and tax that new heart valve as 
well.
  Madam Speaker, people are hurting out there in their pocketbooks and 
we can't afford a government-run health insurance policy at this time 
because it costs too much. The people can't afford all these new taxes 
and seniors can't afford to have a half trillion dollars cut out of 
their Medicare.
  This government takeover of health care is just in time for 
Thanksgiving. Hopefully the American people won't be the turkey served 
up on the plate of government-run health care reform.
  And that's just the way it is.

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