Monday, December 3, 2012

Ebenezer Obama’s “Scrooge Christmas”

On Friday, President Obama said that going over the “fiscal cliff” would result in a “Scrooge Christmas” for millions of struggling middle-class families.  The President is right that raising taxes on anyone would put a “Bah, humbug!” into Americans’ holiday spirit.  But we like to think that, after calling other politicians names, President Obama received a visit by the following three spirits:

Ghost of Christmas Past:  President Obama signs SCHIP legislation, including his first – but not his last – tax increase on the middle class.  Old Fezziwig complains that Obama unfairly broke his “firm pledge” to the middle class not to raise “any of your taxes.”

Ghost of Christmas Present:  President Obama’s latest tax increases in Obamacare take effect on January 1, raising taxes on millions of middle-class families who buy health insurance, participate in flexible spending arrangements, or use medical devices.  As a result, the Cratchits can’t afford to buy Tiny Tim a new crutch, due to the medical device tax used to fund Obamacare.

Ghost of Christmas Future:  Obamacare’s other taxes slowly kick in, including the 40 percent tax on health benefits – because Obamacare forces people to buy health insurance so that the government can tax it.  That doesn’t even count the new taxes that have yet to be enacted.  Both the non-partisan Medicare actuary and Congressional Budget Office agree that Obamacare is unsustainable as written – meaning even more tax hikes are on the way.  And the grave seen at the end of our tale isn’t Ebenezer’s – it’s that of the American taxpayer, worked to death to pay for Obamacare’s crushing fiscal burdens.

But as Dickens taught us more than a century ago, there is always time to repent, seek forgiveness, and change course.  The question now is, will Ebenezer Obama listen to the lesson these three spirits have provided, and stop raiding the middle class to pay for unsustainable new entitlements?