Thread: Democrats say tax hit in health plan goes too far

11 comments so far at the source link.
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Democrats say tax hit in health plan goes too far

11:31 PM CDT on Monday, July 20, 2009
FROM WIRE REPORTS
WASHINGTON – As President Barack Obama on Monday began a new push to overhaul the health system, Democratic congressional leaders, bowing to unease among lawmakers and governors in their own party, suggested scaling back a plan to tax top earners to pay for the legislation and signaled a retreat from their ambitious timetable.

Meanwhile, emboldened Republicans launched an aggressive attack on the bills moving through Congress. Party Chairman Michael Steele said in a speech that Obama is "conducting a dangerous experiment with our health care."

House and Senate leaders had been pressing for floor votes in each chamber before lawmakers depart for the August summer recess.

But congressional aides said it was increasingly clear that the Senate would not be ready to vote on its bill before its recess begins Aug. 8, and that House Democrats seemed unwilling to vote to raise taxes without knowing where the Senate stood.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., suggested revising the financing provisions, one of the most contentious parts of the House bill, which tax high-income households. Pelosi said she would prefer that fewer people had to pay the tax, which was approved Friday by the Ways and Means Committee.


End of the year

Obama, in an interview on The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer on PBS, said he had not given up on his timetable. He also pressed a group of bloggers to help him keep the pressure on lawmakers to act. And earlier in the day, while on a visit to the Children's National Medical Center in Washington, he spoke out strongly against a health system that he said was increasingly unaffordable to families.

"If we do nothing, then families will spend more and more of their income for less and less care," he said Monday.

But rather than reiterating his demand that each chamber of Congress pass a health care bill before the August break, Obama emphasized the need to reach a final agreement by the end of the year. "So let's fight our way through the politics of the moment," he said. "Let's pass reform by the end of this year."

Despite White House demurrals, the end-of-year deadline suggested that Obama was backing away slightly from his timetable; previously he had called on Congress to send him legislation to sign by mid-October.



Income surtax

Under the House bill, the income surtax would apply to individuals with adjusted gross incomes of more than $280,000 and couples filing joint returns with incomes over $350,000. Aides to Pelosi said she wanted to raise the thresholds to $500,000 for individuals and $1 million for joint filers, so the new levy could be described as a tax on millionaires.

The Senate, however, has shown little interest in such a tax to pay for the legislation. And House Democrats, especially more junior members elected in 2006 and 2008 from Republican-leaning districts, are reluctant to vote for a big tax increase if it is unlikely to be included in the final bill.

Such a vote, they contend, would provide easy fodder for opponents seeking to paint them as tax-and-spend liberals. Those concerns prompted Pelosi over the weekend to warn Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., that she may have to delay the House vote on the bill until September unless she has a clearer idea of the Senate's plans.

Even as Obama sought to answer critics, the Mayo Clinic, cited by the president and lawmakers of both parties as a model, criticized the House health care bill on Monday, saying: "The legislation misses the opportunity to help create higher-quality, more affordable health care for patients."

Opponents and proponents of the measures began intensifying their rhetoric and saturating the media to move public support to their sides.

The Republican National Committee unveiled an ad Monday charging that the Democratic health care bills moving through the House and Senate are Obama's "risky experiment with our health care."

The Democratic National Committee announced last week that it's launching a television ad with people looking directly into the camera to talk about family health care woes and to urge senators, "It's time for health care reform." The ads are slated to run in Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Louisiana, Nebraska and North Dakota.


Shades of 1993

Political analysts and advocates predict that the rhetoric from Obama and lawmakers combined with the ad wars from interest groups will be sharper and more heated than the 1993 public debate over President Bill Clinton and former first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton's failed health care plan.

"It's going to be as contentious as 1993, especially if a Senate vote approaches," said Ed Gillespie, who served as counselor to President George W. Bush. "It's a personal issue and a quality-of-life issue. The closer we actually get to a bill, the more intense it will get."

Some of that intensity bubbled up last week on a conference call hosted by the advocacy group Conservatives for Patients Rights when Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., said that halting health legislation in Congress could help put the brakes on Obama's presidency.

"If we're able to stop Obama on this it will be his Waterloo," DeMint said. "It will break him."

Obama pounced on the remark Monday, issuing a statement that rebuked DeMint without identifying him.

"Think about that," the president said. "This isn't about me. This isn't about politics. This is about a health care system that is breaking America's families, breaking America's businesses and breaking America's economy."

www.dallasnews.com

11 comments so far at the source link.
~~~

Democrats say tax hit in health plan goes too far

11:31 PM CDT on Monday, July 20, 2009
FROM WIRE REPORTS
WASHINGTON – As President Barack Obama on Monday began a new push to overhaul the health system, Democratic congressional leaders, bowing to unease among lawmakers and governors in their own party, suggested scaling back a plan to tax top earners to pay for the legislation and signaled a retreat from their ambitious timetable.

Meanwhile, emboldened Republicans launched an aggressive attack on the bills moving through Congress. Party Chairman Michael Steele said in a speech that Obama is "conducting a dangerous experiment with our health care."

House and Senate leaders had been pressing for floor votes in each chamber before lawmakers depart for the August summer recess.

But congressional aides said it was increasingly clear that the Senate would not be ready to vote on its bill before its recess begins Aug. 8, and that House Democrats seemed unwilling to vote to raise taxes without knowing where the Senate stood.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., suggested revising the financing provisions, one of the most contentious parts of the House bill, which tax high-income households. Pelosi said she would prefer that fewer people had to pay the tax, which was approved Friday by the Ways and Means Committee.


End of the year

Obama, in an interview on The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer on PBS, said he had not given up on his timetable. He also pressed a group of bloggers to help him keep the pressure on lawmakers to act. And earlier in the day, while on a visit to the Children's National Medical Center in Washington, he spoke out strongly against a health system that he said was increasingly unaffordable to families.

"If we do nothing, then families will spend more and more of their income for less and less care," he said Monday.

But rather than reiterating his demand that each chamber of Congress pass a health care bill before the August break, Obama emphasized the need to reach a final agreement by the end of the year. "So let's fight our way through the politics of the moment," he said. "Let's pass reform by the end of this year."

Despite White House demurrals, the end-of-year deadline suggested that Obama was backing away slightly from his timetable; previously he had called on Congress to send him legislation to sign by mid-October.



Income surtax

Under the House bill, the income surtax would apply to individuals with adjusted gross incomes of more than $280,000 and couples filing joint returns with incomes over $350,000. Aides to Pelosi said she wanted to raise the thresholds to $500,000 for individuals and $1 million for joint filers, so the new levy could be described as a tax on millionaires.

The Senate, however, has shown little interest in such a tax to pay for the legislation. And House Democrats, especially more junior members elected in 2006 and 2008 from Republican-leaning districts, are reluctant to vote for a big tax increase if it is unlikely to be included in the final bill.

Such a vote, they contend, would provide easy fodder for opponents seeking to paint them as tax-and-spend liberals. Those concerns prompted Pelosi over the weekend to warn Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., that she may have to delay the House vote on the bill until September unless she has a clearer idea of the Senate's plans.

Even as Obama sought to answer critics, the Mayo Clinic, cited by the president and lawmakers of both parties as a model, criticized the House health care bill on Monday, saying: "The legislation misses the opportunity to help create higher-quality, more affordable health care for patients."

Opponents and proponents of the measures began intensifying their rhetoric and saturating the media to move public support to their sides.

The Republican National Committee unveiled an ad Monday charging that the Democratic health care bills moving through the House and Senate are Obama's "risky experiment with our health care."

The Democratic National Committee announced last week that it's launching a television ad with people looking directly into the camera to talk about family health care woes and to urge senators, "It's time for health care reform." The ads are slated to run in Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Louisiana, Nebraska and North Dakota.


Shades of 1993

Political analysts and advocates predict that the rhetoric from Obama and lawmakers combined with the ad wars from interest groups will be sharper and more heated than the 1993 public debate over President Bill Clinton and former first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton's failed health care plan.

"It's going to be as contentious as 1993, especially if a Senate vote approaches," said Ed Gillespie, who served as counselor to President George W. Bush. "It's a personal issue and a quality-of-life issue. The closer we actually get to a bill, the more intense it will get."

Some of that intensity bubbled up last week on a conference call hosted by the advocacy group Conservatives for Patients Rights when Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., said that halting health legislation in Congress could help put the brakes on Obama's presidency.

"If we're able to stop Obama on this it will be his Waterloo," DeMint said. "It will break him."

Obama pounced on the remark Monday, issuing a statement that rebuked DeMint without identifying him.

"Think about that," the president said. "This isn't about me. This isn't about politics. This is about a health care system that is breaking America's families, breaking America's businesses and breaking America's economy."

www.dallasnews.com

Nobummer is full of BS.

Nobummer is full of BS.