Read My Lips: 23%

clipped from taxprof.typepad.com Following up on last week's post (80% Marginal Tax Rates After Health Care Reform), there is an op-ed in today's Wall Street Journal by former Director of the Congressional Budget Office Douglas Holtz-Eakin, The Baucus Bill Is a Tax Bill; Middle-Class Families Would Get Hit With a Double-Digit Increase in Their Marginal Tax Rate: Most astounding of all is what this Congress is willing to do to struggling middle-class families. The bill would impose nearly $400 billion in new taxes and fees. Nearly 90% of that burden will be shouldered by those making $200,000 or less. It might not appear that way at first, because the dollars are collected via a 40% tax on sales by insurers of "Cadillac" policies, fees on health insurers, drug companies and device manufacturers, and an assortment of odds and ends. But the economics are clear. In other words, earning another $12,000 raises their bill by $2,800—a marginal tax rate of 23%.