Location: The Heritage Foundation's Lehrman Auditorium

Very few Washington policy makers want to discuss how Congress will finance the Administration’s version of health care reform, but few topics under the health care tent could be as important to the general public.  If Congress raises taxes to pay for a government solution to our broken health care system, then the economic burden falls on everyone working and saving … not just on the unlucky taxpayers who end up seeing their tax bills rise.  That means fewer jobs, less income, and slower economic growth for the entire economy.

Recent essays by two of Washington’s leading policy economists, Dr. Robert Carroll of the Tax Foundation and Dr. Karen Campbell of The Heritage Foundation, show exactly how the burden of targeted tax increases is, in fact, borne by everyone who works and saves in the United States.  Dr. Carroll’s work focuses on the additional costs that government imposes on economic activity when it increases taxes or spending, as it will do if the leading version of health care reform is adopted.  His estimates are confirmed by Dr. Campbell’s forecasts of how much the economy will shrink if Congress adopts proposals by Congressman Charles Rangel (D-NY) to raise taxes on upper income taxpayers.