factcheck on ACA taxes

[Danzig]

no, it's not the largest tax increase ever. but it's still a hefty one:


http://factcheck.org/2012/07/biggest...se-in-history/


Q: Is the new health care law “the biggest tax increase in history?”


A: In raw dollars, perhaps. But several tax increases just since 1968 were larger as percentages of the economy, or in inflation-adjusted dollars.



FULL QUESTION

Will “Obamacare” be the largest tax hike in US history?

FULL ANSWER

Several readers have asked us about this since Rush Limbaugh made a hugely exaggerated claim that the new health care law is “the biggest tax increase in the history of the world.”

We’re not sure Limbaugh meant his statement to be taken seriously; He offered no figures or citations to back up what he said. But other critics of the law have made similar claims.

The increase is certainly large. So let’s take a look at how the taxes and fees that finance “Obamacare” stack up against earlier increases.

A Big Increase

There’s no question that the package of taxes and other revenue-raisers that the law contains constitute a large increase. The most recent estimate from the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation puts the total for more than a dozen different tax increases and other “revenue-related provisions” at $675 billion between now and 2022.

And that’s not counting the effect of penalty payments by individuals who refuse to take out health insurance (estimated by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office to be $54 billion over the same period.