WTF!
Too many Democrats support working people rhetorically but screw them in action. Let's take Montana Senator Baucus as a prime example.
President Obama wants to let the Bush tax cuts for people making over $250,000 expire in 2010. To continue them, Congress must pass a new bill. If it does nothing, the tax cuts expire. But don't worry all those who care more about the Top 5% than the bottom 95% of Americans, because Baucus will protect your wealth:
With President Obama's plan to tax the rich to pay for health care facing deep skepticism on Capitol Hill, key lawmakers are pressing a different way to raise money: taxing the health benefits workers receive from their employers.
WaPo: Workers' Health Benefits Eyed for Taxation
President Obama must tell Congress that any such tax plan will be vetoed.
More, after the fold.
Senator "Screw the Worker" Max Buacus (faux Dem from Montana) loves to protect the wealthy while screwing the middle class:
In recent weeks, however, Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), chairman of the tax-writing Finance Committee, has repeatedly advocated changing tax laws to include employer benefits, arguing that it makes sense to fund the health-care changes by sucking cash out of the existing system. Meanwhile, 13 other senators -- from both sides of the aisle -- have signed on to a plan for universal coverage that includes a tax on employer-provided benefits.
"I think it's extremely important from a credibility standpoint to show the American people that you're making savings in the enormous sums now being spent on health care before you go out and ask them for billions of dollars more," said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), one of the sponsors of that proposal. "And I don't think I'm the only senator who feels that way."
WaPo: Workers' Health Benefits Eyed for Taxation
Are we in an alternate f..king universe or what?
In contrast, Sen. McCain, who constantly repeats his no-new-taxes promise on the campaign trail, proposes a big tax hike as the solution to our health-care crisis. His plan would raise taxes on workers who receive health benefits, with the idea of encouraging their employers to drop coverage. A study conducted by University of Michigan economist Tom Buchmueller and colleagues published in the journal Health Affairs suggests that the McCain tax hike will lead employers to drop coverage for over 20 million Americans.
What would happen to these people? Mr. McCain will give them a small tax credit, $5,000 for a family and $2,500 for an individual, and tell them to navigate the individual insurance market on their own.
Why Obama's Health Plan Is Better, SEPTEMBER 16, 2008
Yes, Baucus wants the McCain Plan!
Barack Obama campaigned against that Plan:
"He says that he's going to give you a 5,000 dollar tax credit," Obama says. "What he doesn't tell you is that he's going to tax your employer based health care benefits, for the first time ever...so what one hand giveth, the other hand taketh away."
But now?
So far, administration officials have been careful not to endorse the idea, which Obama blasted as a major tax increase last year after Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) made it the centerpiece of his presidential campaign's health plan. But the president hasn't slammed the door on it, either.
This week, White House budget director Peter Orszag said taxing employer benefits was among several ideas that "most firmly should remain on the table." White House economic adviser Jason Furman called for an end to the so-called "employer exclusion" before he joined the administration. Meanwhile, some congressional Democrats say the White House has signaled that Obama would accept a tax on employer benefits as long as he didn't have to propose it himself.
WaPo: Workers' Health Benefits Eyed for Taxation
Some Congressional Democrats better be full of shit. I just do not believe President Obama is that dishonest as to run against a tax on employer provided health care benefits and then ask Congress to pass it so long as he has no "fingerprints" on it. I don't buy it.
As for Orzag wanting this idea on the table, well, if this is health care reform, progressives must draw a line in the sand and kill it.
Taxing employer provided health care benefits after campaigning against it would be the rebirth of the Republican Party. This idea is insane.
That is it actually "on the table," while single payer is off the table and a public option is falling off the table fast leads me to think that progressives may have to fight the Reform.
President Obama needs to be clear that he will not tax worker health benefits, as he promised in the campaign. This is one promise that no amount of rhetorical genius can talk away.