President Obama Sure Loves Taxes (Update)

I know this because just about everyday he seems to find a new one to raise. His latest proposal is an increase on the tax on soda.

Senate leaders are considering new federal taxes on soda and other sugary drinks to help pay for an overhaul of the nation’s health-care system.

The taxes would pay for only a fraction of the cost to expand health-insurance coverage to all Americans and would face strong opposition from the beverage industry. They also could spark a backlash from consumers who would have to pay several cents more for a soft drink.

The size of this tax isn't all that much. Most people aren't going to get poor paying more for soda. Maybe, that's the point. What should bother and trouble everyone is the size and scope that these tax cuts represent. If this were the only taxes the president has proposed raising, I wouldn't care much. In fact though, this tax is the latest incarnation in the president's attempt to turn over every rock to find someone or something to tax.

Just three days earlier, the president proposed a new tax on estates.

The Obama administration will propose $60 billion in new tax increases over 10 years on wealthy estates, businesses and others to make up for shortfalls in its fund to pay for an expensive overhaul of the health-care system.

The measures go beyond plans the White House has announced in the past few weeks. Officials said that upon further analysis they realized that they had overestimated savings and tax increases proposed in February to help pay the bill.

Weeks before that he proposed to end a so called "loophole" on foreign income of U.S. corporations.

President Barack Obama today outlined moves to crack down on American companies and individuals' use of overseas tax shelters and rewriting the tax code to
encourage companies to invest in the US.

Obama and treasury secretary Tim Geithner unveiled a series of initiatives the White House hopes will raise $210bn over the next 10 years, money the US Congress would need to close the budget deficit and fund Obama's ambitious policies on healthcare, climate, energy and other areas.

At the White House today, the president said that US corporations must pay their share in taxes, and reiterated a theme from his president campaign – that the US tax code should not encourage companies to hire workers in Mexico, India, eastern Europe and elsewhere rather than in struggling American cities.

The president is also considering adding a tax to purchases made on the internet.

Now Congress and Obama have their eyes on the Internet to help fund more government spending — because most U.S. States are pushing for the new tax rules that require federal oversight — and Washington is ready and willing to help. Congress is expected to introduce a bill this week that would require Amazon.com, L.L. Bean, eBay, Cabela’s and other online merchants to collect sales tax on all online purchases and return that money to the state in which the purchaser resides — which may force business that make sales online to abide by the tax laws maintained by each and every state.

The new bill rewrites the ground rules for mail order and Internet sales by eliminating what its supporters view as a “loophole” that, in many cases, allows Americans to shop over the Internet without paying sales taxes.

Beyond this the president has proposed eliminated tax credits for not only mortgage interest but also charitable deductions. Of course, all of this comes on top of the president planning on allowing some of the Bush tax cuts to expire. This includes raising the top marginal rate from 33% to 39% and raising the capital gains tax from 15% to 20%.

Now, that's a lot of tax increases on all sorts of folks and this doesn't even include cap and trade which would be an indirect tax. Most of them won't affect most of the people DIRECTLY. So, everyone must think about two things. If he's willing to raise this many taxes on this many different people and entities this quickly, how long before he finally gets to you. Second, why does he need to raise so many different taxes. That's because he plans on spending all sorts of money. Beyond those two things, also keep in mind that the only tax decrease that President Obama has proposed is his $400 tax credit which will expire at the end of next year. Just look at all the places that President Obama wants to increase taxes and compare that to the ONE place he wants to cut taxes. Mull that over and think about what that says about his economy policy and world view.

Update:

as a commenter pointed out, President Obama also raised the tax on cigarettes to fund SCHIP.