Top Ten Tax Increases Included In H.R. 3962

Floor Speech

Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, as anyone who has been paying much attention to what has been going on in Congress this fall will know, we have been talking about health care. What we had introduced last week was H.R. 3962, which I call a ``tax increase bill'' masquerading as a health care bill, and I want to outline some of the tax increases that are included in H.R. 3962 to back up my comments.

Number 1: Small business surtax, section 551, page 336, $460.5 billion.

Number 2: Employer mandate tax, sections 511-512, page 308, $135 billion. This violates President Obama's pledge to avoid tax increases on Americans earning less than $250,000.

Number 3: Individual mandate tax, section 501, page 296, $33 billion. This also violates President Obama's pledge.

Number 4: Medical device tax, section 552, page 339, $20 billion. Again, it violates President Obama's pledge to avoid tax increases on Americans earning less than $250,000.

Number 5: $2,500 annual cap on FSAs, section 532, page 325, $13.3 billion. It violates President Obama's pledge.

Number 6: Prohibition on pretax purchases of over-the-counter drugs through HSAs, FSAs, and HRAs, section 531, page 324, $5 billion. This is another violation.

Number 7: Tax on health insurance policies to fund Comparative Effectiveness Research Trust Fund, section 1802, page 1162, $2 billion. It violates the pledge.

Number 8: 20 percent penalty on certain HSA distributions, section 533, page 326, $1.3 billion.

Number 9: Other tax hikes and increased compliance costs on U.S. job creators, $56.4 billion; IRS reporting on payments; delay implementation of worldwide interest allocation rules; override U.S. treaties on certain payments by insourcing businesses; codify economic substance doctrine and impose penalties.

All of these are referenced by the section number and the page number so the American people don't have to rely on what we're saying.

There is one other, which is revenue-raising provisions for $3 billion.

The total tax increases in the bill: $729.5 billion. This information came from the Joint Committee on Taxation, Congressional Budget Office.

Mr. Speaker, what we need is reform in our health care system. Republicans have offered commonsense reform. Those commonsense reform items are not being allowed to be heard. They were voted down in committee over and over and over again by the Democrat majority. This is not what the American people want. They want to see reform in health care, not increased taxes and a job-killing bill that will do very little to help with their challenges in dealing with health care reform.

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