Thursday, September 27, 2012

"Affordable Healthcare" Tax

            For those who may have missed this provision of the Affordable Healthcare Act, beginning January 1, 2013, the federal government will levy a 3.8% home sales tax.  For those with short memories, this tax comes on the heels of the greatest housing price meltdown in U.S. history.  Trillions of dollars have been lost on millions of homes and our government has the hubris to begin taxing those who manage to sell their homes, albeit at discount prices.  Is this adding insult to injury, or what? 
            This Administration, with the help of Congress, financially rescued the bankers that engineered the housing collapse, while artificially low interest rates penalize those who save and further enrich banks.  Insurance rates are rising obscenely with “affordable health care” and the politician’s solution is a sales tax on homes.
            Even in good economic times, taxing home sales to finance an “affordable healthcare act” seems disconnected.  But, in the current economy, it demonstrates insensitivity to the plight of those that work, save, and sacrifice, for the American dream of homeownership.

Jim McColloch