CBO Confirms: Obamacare Raises Taxes on Middle Class

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office on Wednesday released a report estimating that 6 million people would be subject to the Obamacare tax, approximating $7 billion in taxes in 2016 with each of the 6 million people paying at least $695.

As the Washington Examiner notes, most of those 6 million are in the middle class, with 4.7 million having incomes “500 percent of the federal poverty level,” which the CBO projects will be “$60,000 for individuals and $123,000 for families of four by 2016.” 

The CBO describes the Obamacare tax as: “the greater of: a flat dollar amount per person that rises to $695 in 2016 and is indexed by inflation thereafter (the penalty for children will be half that amount and an overall cap will apply to family payments); or a percentage of the household’s income that rises to 2.5 percent for 2016 and subsequent years (also subject to a cap).”

In 2008, Obama pledged “no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase — not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes.”

The Supreme Court, by a 5-4 vote, ruled Obamacare was constitutional because it was a tax and, in so doing, ensured one of Obama’s central promises from 2008 was broken.