Now everyone works for the government

For the rest of us, numerous exemptions will decrease immediately: We won’t be able to deduct our state and local taxes from our federal income tax; tuition expenses won’t be deductible; depreciation on farm machinery will be a thing of the past; and no charitable deduction for book donations or computer equipment. Over the next several years, further deduction-and-exemption decreases will take place along with tax rate increases. And, we’ll be paying an additional $5 billion for over-the-counter medications. Further, the new Health Care Reform legislation fines those employers who do not offer what the feds consider “adequate” insurance — $2,000 for every employee after the first 30. That tax rule alone could force employers to reduce their number of workers and/or to increase the number of part-time employees. Sadly, low-income parents are the ones more likely to use government subsidies for purchasing health care insurance, which means employers will be less likely to hire them and put their firms in jeopardy for tax penalties.

At a more important level, new tax laws with their “marriage penalty” could weaken marriage in much the same way that the “Great Society” welfare legislation — with its financial incentives for single women — undermined the black family. If federal support and encouragement for marriage is removed, an essential building block of the community and nation is destroyed. Married couples — who are establishing families that will strengthen their local community and provide the very best possible environment for raising future citizens — should not be required to pay more taxes (estimated at an additional over $10,000 per couple, per year for many) and be penalized for their commitment to the well-being of the nation’s future citizens and leaders. Joe E. Lewis’s words have never been more apropos than today, “With the way tax laws are, you might as well marry for love.”

Janice Shaw Crouse, author of “Children at Risk,” is Executive Director and Senior Fellow of Concerned Women for America’s Beverly LaHaye Institute.