Republicans vote for a tax increase for 87% of businesses in anti-Abortion bill

Republican ant-tax fervor has its limits when it comes to a woman's right to choose. House Speaker John Boehner claims that he and his party do want to raise taxes on anyone because the American people have demanded that politicians stop all tax hikes, especially when it comes to corporations and millionaires. Their fervent war against women trumps that promise.

The House Ways and Means Committee is about to throw that commitment out the window by creating what is in effect a tax increase on 87% of America's companies in their "No taxpayer funded abortion" bill. The bill will shortly make it's way out of committee and will undoubtedly pass in the GOP dominated House. The bill will “prevent women from using itemized medical deductions, certain tax-advantaged health care accounts or tax credits included in last year’s health care law to pay for abortions or for health insurance plans that cover abortion.”

Even economic conservative Grover Norquist was “concerned” that the policy, “however well-intentioned or virtuous,” would “mask a net tax increase.”

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) had this to say about the proposed bill:

WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: This is nothing short of a tax increase, I mean we have to call it exactly what it is. The Republicans are proposing a tax increase on all women because in their anti-women legislation H.R.3, they would take away the tax benefit from all small businesses if their health insurance offers abortion coverage which 87 percent of them do. So essentially they are saying if you are a small business owner and you offer your employees insurance and that policy covers abortion, then you will not be able to benefit from the tax credits that the Affordable Care Act allows you and also that you can already take by offering insurance to your employees.

It’s outrageous. The Republicans are maintaining and proponents of this legislation are maintaining that all they are doing is codifying the status quo and prohibiting federal funding of abortions. This legislation goes much further. It reaches deep into the personal lives of all American women, of all small business owners and twists the Republican nose into the business of people who need insurance and also small business owners who want to provide coverage for their employees.

Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) told ThinkProgress that this is both a war on the “reproductive health of American women and men,” because “if a man was to buy an insurance policy that included a provision that might cover abortions, he would not be able to participate in the exchanges that are being set up.” “This is the most ridiculous, frivolous, but also mean-spirited anti-health care legislation that we’ve seen,” she added.

Today's brand of fanatical Republican (which covers about 95% of the party) have no shame, decency or common sense. From proposing the 'uterus police' in Georgia to allowing the IRS to audit abortion costs, to the narrowing of the definition of rape they will stop at nothing to restrict a woman's right to choose even if it violates their most basic principle of not raiding taxes.

Nothing is inviolate to their fanaticism, even their core economic principles. Love the fetus and hate the baby has become a core principle as evidence by their slashing of a nutrition program for low income pregnant women and infants.