I can make a firm pledge. Under my plan, 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.
There must be some mistake then because I just got an email from our accounting department stating that effective January 1, 2011, over-the-counter drugs will require a doctor’s prescription when an FSA claim for reimbursement is submitted.
That doesn’t even make sense. Of course I don’t have a prescription for OTC drugs. Why would I pay a doctor to write me a prescription for something that I can just walk into Walgreen’s and buy it?
Hi Doc, I’ve got a terrible cold so I just stopped by to drop a $30 co-pay and get a prescription for some Nyquil.
And if I can no longer pay for ibuprofen, aspirin, cough/cold medication, etc., with pre-tax dollars through my FSA, that makes my taxes go up. Did I mention that I earn less than $250,000 a year?
They came first for the smokers with last April’s increase in the cigarette tax from 39 cents a pack to $1.01 (even for smokers making less than $250,000), and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a smoker.
Then they came for the tanners with the 10 percent tanning bed tax (no exemption for tanners making less than $250,000), and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a tanner.
Then they came for me and by that time no one was left to speak up . . .