DC's Excise Tax Cult Battles Unions, Critical Research and Taxing the Rich

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.truthout.org/dcs-excise-tax-cult-battles-unions-critical-research-and-taxing-rich56032

Wednesday 13 January 2010

by: Art Levine, t r u t h o u t | News Analysis

The centrist natives of Washington are banding together to defend their faith-based totem: the wildly unpopular excise tax on high-cost health plans.

They and some of their academic allies are reciting mantras in editorial pages and opinion columns about how it will cut wasteful spending and raise billions in revenues, as they're preparing to fend off outside forces - including unions and progressive House Democrats worried about a 2010 electoral tsunami - that are rising up against the cost-shifting tax. It's expected to burden 31 million middle-class families (mostly nonunion) with added costs, about a fifth of the workforce.

Indeed, the mounting opposition - and the overwhelming evidence undermining virtually every claim made for the tax - has prompted some Democrats to start looking at a long-overlooked source of added revenue from the health care system: adding as a Medicare tax the unearned income of the super-wealthy, rather than just using payroll taxes. As an early champion of the idea, Steve Wamhoff, legislative director of Citizens for Tax Justice, explained to me a while ago, "If Paris Hilton is living off investments, she doesn't contribute one cent to the Medicare fund," while workers have to pay part of their payroll tax. So it was potentially promising for progressives that The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday:

House and Senate negotiators are considering applying for the first time the Medicare payroll tax to investment income as part of a compromise to pay for a health overhaul.

The extra Medicare tax would apply only to the wealthy and could allow congressional Democrats to reduce the sting of a tax on high-cost insurance plans, said Democratic aides and others briefed on the negotiations.

Labor leaders complained directly to President Barack Obama on Monday about the tax on high-value plans, which would hit some union members who have negotiated generous health benefits.

FULL story at link.

[Earth Bound Misfit]

1. BIG KNR!!!!!

.....adding as a Medicare tax the unearned income of the super-wealthy, rather than just using payroll taxes...

Now THAT'S CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN. :applause: :applause:

:hide:

NOT gonna hold my breath, tho. :(

....as they're preparing to fend off outside forces - including unions and progressive House Democrats worried about a 2010 electoral tsunami...

"progressive House Democrats"

Yeah, all 3 of them.

Frustrated much? Does it really show?