As President Obama works to massively expand America’s entitlement offerings and shore up the Social Security and Medicare crises, he assures America that the tax burden will rest only on “rich” households.   Cato’s Jagadeesh Gokhale explains how such plans will have disastrous effects on Americans. 

After crunching out the real numbers, Mr. Gokhale found that, if the new health care plan were to be funded by households making $200,000 or more per year, their annual total tax payments would need to be permanently increased by about 50%.  The tax revenue collected from these households would have to increase 328% to cover Social Security and Medicare shortfalls, too.  He notes that “a family of four living in a low-tax state (South Dakota) would need to gross almost $900,000 per year to have enough income left over to reach the poverty line.”

The President and Congress must face the reality that America’s entitlement programs cannot be set on a sustainable course by placing the tax burden on the “rich” and “super-rich” alone.  These Americans are the future of our nation’s economic prosperity as entrepreneurs and employers. 

Simply put, Obama’s entitlement program expansion intended to improve the lives of Americans is effectively going to kill the lifeblood of America.