J.D. Tuccille on Obamacare Taxes

In what was already an eventful year, Obamacare generated lots of buzz in 2012, first in the lead-up to the Supreme Court's much-anticipated ruling on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act, and then in the chatter-heavy aftermath of the surprise decision upholding the law. After that, headlines focused on Medicaid expansion (which states would and which states wouldn't) and health insurance exchanges (which states would take the task on, and which would tell the feds to tackle the mess themselves). But, says J.D. Tuccille, managing editor of Reason 24/7, government regulations and new or expanded bureaucracies don't pay for themselves; they require tax-funding. And we have heard relatively little about the plague of taxes and tax changes that now sweep over us with the dawn of 2013.