“On this single day, citizens from Ohio to Texas will take a unified stand against big government. Here in Wisconsin, we’ll respectfully take the battle for our families and businesses inside the Capitol in Madison.

Come join us in Madison at the Capitol to send a message to our legislators.

In 2010, the People of Wisconsin will vote for principle over party. We will seek to elect those ready to help us turn back the tide of big government, unaffordable entitlement programs, out-of-control spending, and over-taxation. We will work to unseat any incumbents who do not share this vision. We will take this state back.”

For more information, check out their site.

“For example, in Reid’s bill, the words “tax” and “taxes” appear 200 times. “Regulations” 192 times. In contrast, “choice” and “options” appear 26 and 40 times, respectively.”

I am not surprised at all, with the Democrats constantly pushing bigger government and taking away our choices and freedoms, we shouldn’t be surprised when they try to pass ever more taxing and draconian legislation.  We should, however, push back and replace them as the populace realizes they made a mistake in 2008 and moves to correct it by electing common sense conservative Republicans in 2010 and beyond.

In case you wanted more details on all of the new taxes the Democrats are using to make the big number all the news stations are using a little smaller (ie more taxes counteract the huge amount of spending), here are just a few of the details from the Joint Committee on Taxation(summarized in the WSJ):

Tax on high-end health insurance plans: $149.1 billion

Capping flexible spending accounts at $2,500: $14.6 billion

Fees for drug makers: $22.2 billion

Fees for medical device makers: $19.3 billion

Fees for health insurance companies: $60.4 billion

Higher floor for deducting medical expenses: $15.2 billion

Higher payroll tax for top earners: $53.8 billion

Tax on cosmetic surgery: $5.8 billion

Who will actually pay all these taxes?  Us!  The companies will just raise their prices to pay for the taxes.  It’s not passed yet thought!  Call your Senators today!

The one that bothers me the most? The new HSA taxes and limits.  Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) are a responsible way for Americans to take control of their healthcare spending and save for the future. What do the Democrats do with it? Limit it!  They know what’s good for you so just let the government take care of everything!

Here is a run down of all the new taxes from ATR:

“H.R. 3962, the “Affordable Health Care for America Act” has been introduced–all 1990 pages of it.  This gargantuan beast contains thirteen new tax hikes.  Here they all are, with description and page number (PDF version):

***

Employer Mandate Excise Tax (Page 275): If an employer does not pay 72.5 percent of a single employee’s health premium (65 percent of a family employee), the employer must pay an excise tax equal to 8 percent of average wages.  Small employers (measured by payroll size) have smaller payroll tax rates of 0 percent (<$500,000), 2 percent ($500,000-$585,000), 4 percent ($585,000-$670,000), and 6 percent ($670,000-$750,000).

Individual Mandate Surtax (Page 296): If an individual fails to obtain qualifying coverage, he must pay an income surtax equal to the lesser of 2.5 percent of modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) or the average premium.  MAGI adds back in the foreign earned income exclusion and municipal bond interest.

Medicine Cabinet Tax (Page 324): Non-prescription medications would no longer be able to be purchased from health savings accounts (HSAs), flexible spending accounts (FSAs), or health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs).  Insulin excepted.

Cap on FSAs (Page 325): FSAs would face an annual cap of $2500 (currently uncapped).

Increased Additional Tax on Non-Qualified HSA Distributions (Page 326): Non-qualified distributions from HSAs would face an additional tax of 20 percent (current law is 10 percent).  This disadvantages HSAs relative to other tax-free accounts (e.g. IRAs, 401(k)s, 529 plans, etc.)

Denial of Tax Deduction for Employer Health Plans Coordinating with Medicare Part D (Page 327): This would further erode private sector participation in delivery of Medicare services.

Surtax on Individuals and Small Businesses (Page 336): Imposes an income surtax of 5.4 percent on MAGI over $500,000 ($1 million married filing jointly).  MAGI adds back in the itemized deduction for margin loan interest.  This would raise the top marginal tax rate in 2011 from 39.6 percent under current law to 45 percent—a new effective top rate.

Excise Tax on Medical Devices (Page 339): Imposes a new excise tax on medical device manufacturers equal to 2.5 percent of the wholesale price.  It excludes retail sales and unspecified medical devices sold to the general public.

Corporate 1099-MISC Information Reporting (Page 344): Requires that 1099-MISC forms be issued to corporations as well as persons for trade or business payments.  Current law limits to just persons for small business compliance complexity reasons.  Also expands reporting to exchanges of property.

Delay in Worldwide Allocation of Interest (Page 345): Delays for nine years the worldwide allocation of interest, a corporate tax relief provision from the American Jobs Creation Act

Limitation on Tax Treaty Benefits for Certain Payments (Page 346): Increases taxes on U.S. employers with overseas operations looking to avoid double taxation of earnings.

Codification of the “Economic Substance Doctrine” (Page 349): Empowers the IRS to disallow a perfectly legal tax deduction or other tax relief merely because the IRS deems that the motive of the taxpayer was not primarily business-related.

Application of “More Likely Than Not” Rule (Page 357): Publicly-traded partnerships and corporations with annual gross receipts in excess of $100 million have raised standards on penalties.  If there is a tax underpayment by these taxpayers, they must be able to prove that the estimated tax paid would have more likely than not been sufficient to cover final tax liability.”

DATE: Tuesday, Oct. 27th

TIME: 5:30-8:00pm

LOCATION: Upstairs at the Palms on 221 N. Broadway (or visit them at: http://www.palmsbistrobar.com/)

J.B. will speak for about 15 minutes around 6:30.

Join us and invite your friends. We’ll be upstairs at the Palms Bistro in the Third Ward.

Thanks to Heather Treptow for arranging this great location.

Thankfully, Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker has already promised a veto: “Now is not the time to be adding any new benefits for public employees, let alone this specific benefit.”

He’s quite right. On Election Day 2006, 55 percent of Milwaukee County voters – over 172,000 residents – said YES to the Wisconsin Marriage Amendment and YES to unique status of marriage as the union of one man and one woman.

And, lastly, nine months after the archdiocese of Milwaukee fell vacant on Dolan’s Eastward move, a recent spike of buzz suggests that the appointment of the Beer City’s next archbishop could be named within the next fortnight.

While no single front-runner has risen to the top, the interregnum’s birthed a lake’s worth of speculation, the most common and credible of which has narrowed the field to a Pack of Four: Bishops Gerald Kicanas of Tucson (currently vice-president of the US bishops), Blase Cupich of Rapid City, Jerome Listecki of LaCrosse and Milwaukee’s administrator, Auxiliary Bishop William Callahan OFM Conv., a close confidant of Dolan’s who attended last week’s Al Smith Dinner in New York as the archbishop’s guest.

I would be surprised if it’s Bishop Kicanas. After all, Bp. Kicanas ran as the liberal candidate against Archbishop Dolan for vice president (and thus in line to be president) of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops in 2007 – he defeated Dolan in that race. Bishop Kicanas is also the oldest among the candidates and is very interested in immigration issues, which seem more to his current assignment in Arizona.

Bishop Listecki has been, by all I’ve seen, an excellent shepherd for the Catholic diocese of La Crosse, and I’d be very happy to see him take up the chair in St. John the Evangelist. Bp. Cupich I’m less familiar with, but he certainly seems to have the right credentials. And it certainly could be Bishop Callahan, who was praised when picked as the auxiliary. Not on Rocco’s list is Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Chicago, who had been mentioned in the past and has always been a personal favorite of mine (he’s been rumored for a bump before).

The Congregation for Bishops has been on a kick the last two weeks releasing selections for various vacancies, so we may be in for our turn in Milwaukee soon.

This chart from The American Spectator does a great job of illustrating the unbelievable amount of spending proposed in the recent Healthcare bill that passed the committee: