The new health care law includes many provisions to "tax the wealthy," that is those of us whose annual income exceeds $250,000. Perhaps $250,000 of income makes you wealthy in some parts of America, but certainly not in the New York City metropolitan area. Many of us work hard to earn whatever we do, often working 60 or more hours per week and taking many business risks.
What do we do with all this excess wealth? Most of us send two or more children to college, and often help them with graduate school. Of course we do all this without financial aid, because, after all, we are the wealthy. We live in moderate homes, make our mortgage and property tax payments (which are among the highest in the country), without default. In New Jersey, we also pay the highest state taxes in the country. Those of us who are self employed pay our own health insurance, and of course we have the discipline to save for retirement because we don't expect any help when we retire. And all this is after we pay federal income, social security, and medicare tax.
Oh, I forgot the best part. We own businesses, provide jobs and provide health insurance to our employees. But we have to be careful, because if the health insurance we provide is too good, it is also subject to tax. The new law even contains a provision that provides for an additional tax on investment income. For as long as I can remember, I've been hearing about how bad the savings rate is in the United States. If this additional tax doesn't discourage savings, nothing will.
I do not disagree that all Americans should have access to affordable health care, but exactly who is it that decided that Americans with $250,000 of annual gross income are wealthy and should bear the majority of the costs of the health care plan? I guess it was a politician, probably one that has not had to work an honest job to support his family.
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