Obama Prepares to Slam Life Insurance, Securities Dealers with Higher Taxes
President Barack Obama proposed raising money to pay for his health-care overhaul by imposing $58 billion in new taxes on securities dealers, life insurance products and Americans with valuable estates.
The eight new proposals, outlined in budget documents released today, are in addition to more than $1 trillion in tax increases over the next decade the president wants to impose beginning in 2011. Those would include higher rates for top earners and restrictions on tax-avoidance techniques commonly used by U.S.-based multinational corporations.
Frank Keating, president of the Washington-based American Council of Life Insurers, warned against imposing the new taxes. “Seventy-five million American families rely on the products offered by life insurers for their financial and retirement security,” Keating, the former Republican governor of Oklahoma, said in a statement. “This is absolutely the wrong time to make it more expensive for families to obtain the security and peace of mind our products provide.”
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