Kansas' U.S. Senator Pat Roberts said Wednesday that the Democratic health care plan could result in a $2.4 trillion tax burden being placed on United States residents over the next decade.

"The rushed health care reform proposals being debated behind closed doors could end up costing the taxpayer $2.4 trillion over ten years while doing nothing to lower the rising cost of care for patients and causing insurance premiums to rise," Roberts said in a statement. Roberts' data comes from the Senate Budget Committee, a spokesperson said.

Roberts said the health care debates “are falling apart,” and said that Democratic leadership has inicated that voting on the Senate’s health care plan may not take place until 2010.

President Barack Obama and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi have both been adamant in trying to get a vote on the bills by the end of 2009.

"The projections of how much the Democrats’ bill will cost once fully implemented underscores the danger their health care reforms pose to our nation’s financial future,” Roberts said.

A Heritage Foundation report published Monday estimated that the plan recently unveiled by Pelosi could end up creating $560 billion in new taxes over a 10 year span. The Heritage Foundation estimate comes from the Joint Tax Committee.

Americans for Prosperity state director Derrick Sontag said he did not find the tax increase reports as surprising, and said the additional burden would likely result in an increase in the state’s unemployment rate, while adding stress to the state's current budget crisis.

“The private sector is still struggling,” Sontag told Kansas Liberty. “Increasing the tax burden on employers is just going to make things worse.”

Many of these taxes will affect businesses, which are expected to experience $135 billion in tax penalties according to Congressional Budget Office estimates. Pelosi’s plan includes a government mandate requiring certain small businesses to supply health insurance to their employees; a mandate that Sontag said could force some businesses to lay off employees, or shut down entirely.

“The government trying to force employers to offer health insurance is never a good idea but it is a terrible idea when those employers are already struggling to keep their workers employed,” Sontag said.

Besides targeting business, the reform would generate funds through tacking on additional taxes to existing income taxes. The Heritage report said this surtax would not be attached to inflation.

These surtaxes are expected to result in taxpayers shelling out $460.5 billion to the government.

“Consequently, more and more taxpayers will be hammered by the surtax even as their real income does not increase,” the report said.

The Heritage report concludes that the tax increases “will slow America’s recovery from the current recession.”

- Holly Smith

Resources

Sen. Roberts' statement

Heritage Foundation report

Americans for Prosperity-Kansas

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