Ever since last November’s elections, it seems like the Democratic Party is stuck on stupid. The WSJ’s Daniel Henninger suggests that it’s more like they’re stuck in the stone age in some important respects:

If you’re an elected Democrat anywhere to the right of Barney Frank, and trying to defend a competitive seat next November, you’ve got to be starting to sweat.

You wake up in the morning and just like every other morning as far as the eye can see the only thing in the news is the president’s health-care reform. It’s starting to look like Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi are leading the Donner Party, the snowbound emigrants who bogged down in the Sierra Nevada winter in the 1840s and resorted to cannibalism to survive.

The betting is that with raw political muscle and procedural magic, the Congressional Democrats will pass something, call it reform and hand Barack Obama a “victory.” Maybe, but I think what we are seeing with this massive legislation is that the Democrats in Washington have a bigger problem: Their party is looking so yesterday.

In a world defined by nearly 100,000 iPhone apps, a world of seemingly limitless, self-defined choice, the Democrats are pushing the biggest, fattest, one-size-fits all legislation since 1965. And they brag this will complete the dream Franklin D. Roosevelt had in 1939.

In an age of customization, the Democrats are pushing a one-size-fits-all health care model. Speaker Pelosi, Harry Reid and President Obama must know that they’re leading their party off an electoral cliff, especially Thursday’s release of a gigantic 1,990 page health care bill in the House. They’ve got to know that alot of Democrats who were elected in swing districts will get defeated.

During his address to the joint session of Congress, President Obama said that the bill he’d sign couldn’t cost more than $900,000,000,000 and it couldn’t add a penny to the deficit. According to CBO, it fails on both counts. According to CBO’s scoring, the bill costs $1,055,000,000,000:

The Congressional Budget Office said Thursday a U.S. House health-care system re-write would extend health insurance to 96% of the nonelderly U.S. population by 2019, and spend $1.055 trillion to do so.

Penalties imposed on individuals who did not purchase insurance, and employers who did not offer coverage to their workers, would raise $161 billion over that time-frame. That brings the net cost of the bill to $894 billion through 2019, CBO said.

The CBO just admitted what the Democrats don’t want you to hear: that penalties to employers or employees account for $161,000,000,000. Americans for Tax Reform has put together a list of taxes included in this bill:

Employer Mandate Excise Tax (Page 275): If an employer does not pay 72.5 percent of a single employee’s health premium (65 percent of a family employee), the employer must pay an excise tax equal to 8 percent of average wages. Small employers (measured by payroll size) have smaller payroll tax rates of 0 percent (<$500,000), 2 percent ($500,000-$585,000), 4 percent ($585,000-$670,000), and 6 percent ($670,000-$750,000).

Individual Mandate Surtax (Page 296): If an individual fails to obtain qualifying coverage, he must pay an income surtax equal to the lesser of 2.5 percent of modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) or the average premium. MAGI adds back in the foreign earned income exclusion and municipal bond interest.

Medicine Cabinet Tax (Page 324): Non-prescription medications would no longer be able to be purchased from health savings accounts (HSAs), flexible spending accounts (FSAs), or health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs). Insulin excepted. Cap on FSAs (Page 325): FSAs would face an annual cap of $2500 (currently uncapped).

Increased Additional Tax on Non-Qualified HSA Distributions (Page 326): Non-qualified distributions from HSAs would face an additional tax of 20 percent (current law is 10 percent). This disadvantages HSAs relative to other tax-free accounts (e.g. IRAs, 401(k)s, 529 plans, etc.)

Denial of Tax Deduction for Employer Health Plans Coordinating with Medicare Part D (Page 327): This would further erode private sector participation in delivery of Medicare services.

Surtax on Individuals and Small Businesses (Page 336): Imposes an income surtax of 5.4 percent on MAGI over $500,000 ($1 million married filing jointly). MAGI adds back in the itemized deduction for margin loan interest. This would raise the top marginal tax rate in 2011 from 39.6 percent under current law to 45 percent—a new effective top rate.

Excise Tax on Medical Devices (Page 339): Imposes a new excise tax on medical device manufacturers equal to 2.5 percent of the wholesale price. It excludes retail sales and unspecified medical devices sold to the general public.

Corporate 1099-MISC Information Reporting (Page 344): Requires that 1099-MISC forms be issued to corporations as well as persons for trade or business payments. Current law limits to just persons for small business compliance complexity reasons. Also expands reporting to exchanges of property.

Delay in Worldwide Allocation of Interest (Page 345): Delays for nine years the worldwide allocation of interest, a corporate tax relief provision from the American Jobs Creation Act.

Limitation on Tax Treaty Benefits for Certain Payments (Page 346): Increases taxes on U.S. employers with overseas operations looking to avoid double taxation of earnings.

Codification of the “Economic Substance Doctrine” (Page 349): Empowers the IRS to disallow a perfectly legal tax deduction or other tax relief merely because the IRS deems that the motive of the taxpayer was not primarily business-related.

Application of “More Likely Than Not” Rule (Page 357): Publicly-traded partnerships and corporations with annual gross receipts in excess of $100 million have raised standards on penalties. If there is a tax underpayment by these taxpayers, they must be able to prove that the estimated tax paid would have more likely than not been sufficient to cover final tax liability.

That’s thirteen tax increases. In the Senate Finance Committee bill, texcise tax on medical devices totaled $121,000,000,000, which drew the ire of Tim Pawlenty, Al Franken and Amy Klobuchar. Sen. Klobuchar is drafting legislation to eliminate that tax because it would hurt Minnesota companies like Boston Scientific and Medtronic.

That’s before we talk about the $245,000,000,000 in Medicare cuts that won’t happen. Yes, it’s the same $245,000,000,000 that was defeated 47-53. Not only couldn’t Harry Reid not get close to ending the filibuster, he didn’t even get 50 Democrats to vote for this sleight of hand gimmick.

Adding back in the $245,000,000,000 of Medicare cuts adds to the $1,055,000,000,000 initial price tag, putting the total at $1,300,000,000,000. After subtracting out the $245,000,000,000 in Medicare cuts that won’t be realized (which Pelosi’s bill promises) and the $121,000,000,000 in medical device tax increases adds up to $366,000,000,000 of deficit spending.

Meanwhile, the bill does nothing to drive down defensive medicine costs, does nothing to eliminate lawsuit abuse and does nothing to give single people and families the flexibility they insist on.

Only in Washington, DC could something like this be considered a reform.

Technorati: Harry Reid, Speaker Pelosi, Health Care, One Size Fits All, Customization, Swing Districts, Blue Dogs, Tax Increases, Deficit Spending, Democrats, Election 2010

Cross-posted at California Conservative