Free Republic

Following are excerpts from an interview with Egyptian cleric Dr. Khaled Said, which aired on Al-Hafez TV (via the Internet) on March 17, 2013. Khaled Said: If the revolution declares a framework for dealing with the West and America – they will accept it, kiss our hands, and double the aid they give us. We consider this aid to be jizya [poll tax], not regular aid. Interviewer: Is this the rhetoric of the revolution? Khaled Said: It certainly is. Interviewer: The aid the Americans give us is the jizya tax they have to pay? Khaled Said: Yes, it is. They...

A newly unveiled component of President Obama’s healthcare law forcing insurers to pay annual fees is sowing angst in state capitols, where officials view the provision as a $15 billion tax that could disrupt Medicaid programs and other services. The health insurance providers fee, included in the healthcare reform law over the objections of congressional Republicans, is designed to raise tens of billions of dollars in the coming years. In Wisconsin alone, the fee would hit the state’s coffers to the tune of $23 million in 2014, and will likely total more than that in subsequent years, said J.P. Wieske,...

One of the necessary features of any law is enforcement. Taxes are laws, and if you don't pay your taxes, the government swoops down on you like a raptor on a rodent. You then must either pay up or prove that you don't owe the money the government says you owe. Otherwise, government can garnish your wages, take your house, or maybe even put you in prison. None of that applies to the "tax" that Chief Justice John Roberts "discovered" in the Affordable Care Act, which the legislation had mistakenly labeled a "penalty" for noncompliance with the mandate to buy...

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has posted a draft of proposed "health insurance providers fee" (RIN 1545-BL20) regulations. Consumer representatives and others are trying to get the IRS to write the regulations in such a way that the agency will discourage health insurance providers from trying to "recover a large portion of the fee from policyholders," officials said in a preamble to draft regulations. The rulemaking notice is set to appear in the Federal Register Monday. Comments will be due 60 days after the official publication date. The fee The proposed regulations are supposed to help the IRS implement Section...

Today, America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) President Karen Ignagni issued a press release in support of bipartisan legislation (H.R. 1370, S.1880) co-sponsored by Rep. Charles Boustany (R-LA) and Jim Matheson (D-UT) to repeal the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) health insurance tax. While much of the dialogue on healthcare reform centers on the federal mandate of health coverage for all Americans – which many conservatives call the largest tax increase in U.S history – less attention is being given to the massive sales tax increase on the purchase of health insurance also implicit within the legislation that will dramatically escalate costs...

#1 Here comes some of those Obama care taxes on Jan 1, 2013. Soon every purchase you make, there will be more taxes. On 103.98 I was charged 8.58 for Texas state taxes. And then Obama care medical tax another 2.39. So the more you spend , the more goes to the “so called free Obama care”. ........................ #2 O didn’t raise taxes, now did he. Here’s another ObamaTax receipt so you KNOW this is real. They should put ObamaTax on these so people know what they are paying.....

In the standoff over the fiscal cliff, all the discussion has been about the Bush tax cuts. There has been no discussion about the ObamaCare tax increases. That's a mistake. Five of the tax increases Americans will face on January 1 are new taxes created under the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare). And they are not just for the very rich. Three of the five will hit people who are solidly middle class.The new ObamaCare taxes will hit everything from dividends and capital gains to day care and services for special needs children. They will increase the tax bill for those...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congressional budget analysts are now estimating that nearly 6 million Americans — most of them in the middle class — will have to pay a tax penalty for not getting health insurance once President Barack Obama's health care law is fully in place.

Six million Americans will pay the health care tax rather than obtain coverage under President Obama’s health care law, according to a new Congressional Budget Office estimate Wednesday — a 50 percent increase over CBO’s estimate of just two years ago. CBO also said there will be 30 million people without insurance, though all but the 6 million will be exempt from the tax. The exempt Americans are a combination of illegal immigrants and those with incomes too low to pay income taxes. The agency said the government will collect about $7 billion from the tax in 2016, and $8...

The House Committee on Ways and Means has compiled an estimate of the total amount of hours it will take to comply with the taxes contained in Obamacare. Based on IRS estimates, it will take nearly 80 million hours for families and businesses to comply with Obamacare taxes. To put this in perspective, according to Ways and Means, it is the equivalent of the Empire State Building being constructed 11 times, a building which took 7 million man-hours to build. To make matters worse, Ways and Means has concluded that over half of the burden of tax compliance for Obamacare...

Two things about the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) are increasingly clear: (1) seniors have been singled out and forced to bear a disproportionate share of the cost of a new entitlement for young people and (2) the states are administratively just not ready to implement the new program in time for its January 1, 2014, start date. So here's a simple proposal that will not affect the federal deficit: Delay the scheduled cuts in Medicare spending by five years and pay for that expense by delaying the 2014 start date of ObamaCare by two years.That would give everyone time to...

As of 5 p.m. Tuesday, Mohammad N. Akhter will no longer be the District’s health director. Officials said Dr. Akhter officially requested a yearlong leave of absence from Mayor Vincent C. Gray’s Cabinet so he can serve on a board charged with carrying out a key portion of President Obama’s health care reforms within the District. By law, Dr. Akhter had to step aside from his job as director of the D.C. Department of Health so he could serve on the city’s Health Benefit Exchange Board. He followed through on those plans before his swearing-in Tuesday alongside six other appointees...

Is the individual mandate in ObamaCare a tax? No, said Nancy Pelosi. No, said DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, even if the IRS is the only agency that can enforce it. No, said Jay Carney, or at least, "it is not a broad-based tax."Of course, Mitt Romney called it a tax --- eventually. Yesterday, his opponent in the election weighed in on the issue, and … have we reached a consensus?CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO OF OBAMA ADMITTING HE LIED TO US “By the way, if you’ve got health insurance, you’re not getting hit by a tax,” President Obama...

llegal aliens are already benefitting from Obamacare, courtesy of the American taxpayer. Henderson, Nevada (United States) (OFFICIAL WIRE) July 6, 2012 Barack Hussein Obama repeatedly stated that his health care law does not pay for illegal alien medical expenses. But American Patriot has proven the fact that illegal aliens and the special interest groups that represent them are cheering the Supreme Court decision to uphold Obamacare because it does exactly that. Marcelo Rivera, representing the group Latinos Para La Revolución (“Latinos for the Revolution”), told the Chicago Civil Rights Examiner, “The individual mandate was the most important part of the...

Jacob J. Lew, the White House chief of staff, on Sunday defended President Obama‘s health care law but rejected the “tax” label that the Supreme Court, in a ruling that mostly upheld the law last week, used to describe the penalty payment required for those who choose not to buy health insurance. The Supreme Court affirmed the so-called individual mandate to buy health insurance on the ground that it might be “reasonably characterized as a tax.” Since the ruling, Republican leaders have denounced the White House for raising the tax burden on Americans with the law, and they have called...

Question for legal tweeps: Obama campaign is now denying that administration SG ever argued that Obamacare mandate is a tax. Looking at oral arguments, SG Verrilli said mandate is 'justifiable under its tax power.' Can't find him saying 'It is a tax'… So therefore: Is Obama hiding behind legal hairsplitting, arguing mandate is constitutional under tax power but is not actually a tax?

IRS officials on background tell FOX Business the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on health reform gives the IRS even more powers than previously understood. The IRS now gets to know about a small business's entire payroll, the level of their insurance coverage -- and it gets to know the income of not just the primary breadwinner in your house, but your entire family’s income, in order to assess/collect the mandated tax.Read more: http://www.foxbusiness.com/government/2012/06/29/scotus-ruling-means-bigger-more-intrusive-irs/#ixzz1zaTFEJT5

ABC News’ Michael Falcone reports: In what is now a well-known exchange from ABC News’ January 2008 Republican presidential debate at St. Anselm College in New Hampshire, Mitt Romney declared “I like mandates” when asked by moderator Charlie Gibson about his approach to health care reform in Massachusetts. But there’s another moment from the debate that’s getting more traction after yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling — on in which Romney says “yes,” when asked is the health reform law he ushered in as governor constituted a tax. GIBSON: ”Governor … you imposed tax penalties in Massachusetts?” ROMNEY: ”Yes, we said, look,...

What? The former Speaker is saying ObamaCare is a penalty, not a tax, that is enforced by the tax code...or something. Gregory: Is it a tax? Pelosi: No no, no no. Pelosi: Right, ObamaCare Is Constitutional Under Taxing PowerIs this what Pelosi meant by "passing the bill to see what's in it?" The Supreme Court saw what was in ObamaCare, ruled it a tax, and she, along with top White House officials, are saying it's a tax. It is very clear the Democrats have their talking points together. And yet, DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz is accusing Republicans of being...

In a 5 to 4 vote, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the controversial provision requiring Americans to purchase health insurance was not unconstitutional, as its opponents had hoped, but amounted to a levy which Congress can issue based on its constitutional right to collect taxes. In a surprise move, Chief Justice John G. Roberts, long seen as a staunch conservative, backed the ruling and delivered the verdict. German healthcare experts have long had difficulty understanding the debate in the United States because mandatory healthcare insurance has been required for decades in Germany, just as it is in many...