During the 2008 presidential campaign, Barack Obama repeatedly lied about John McCain’s health care proposals by claiming McCain wanted to tax health care benefits. The truth is that tax on medical insurance premiums would’ve been more than completely offset by a tax break.
Michael Dobbs, Washington Post Fact Checker: “Joe Biden Mischaracterized McCain’s” Health Care Plan. “Joe Biden mischaracterized McCain’s proposal for giving Americans a tax credit to pay for their own health insurance programs in return for taxing the health benefits they receive from employers. He suggested that the average American family would lose around $7,000 on the deal, receiving a $5,000 tax credit in return for having to pay $12,000 for their own health care program. In fact, the non-partisan Tax Policy Center has calculated that most American families would come out slightly ahead for the next decade at least.” (Michael Dobbs, “Vice Presidential Debate: St. Louis,” Washington Post Fact Checker, 10/2/08)
Well, guess what? The Democrats are now proposing a new tax on health benefits, and it’s not offset by anything.
In the last month of the presidential campaign, it was one of Barack Obama and Joe Biden’s strongest attack lines: John McCain, they warned, would “tax your healthcare benefits for the first time ever.”
But now, some Congressional Democrats in charge of health reform are talking about doing just that.
They would not go as far as McCain, who wanted to end the tax exclusion entirely for employer-sponsored insurance, which excludes money spent by employees and their employers on health benefits from income and payroll taxes.
But some key Democrats are talking about limiting the benefit for workers, so that those with higher incomes or more generous health benefits might pay taxes on some portion of the income they use to pay for their health premiums.
The Democrats never met a tax they didn’t like. Check out what Democratic senator Max Baucus has to say about this whole idea.
Baucus said Obama’s and Biden’s relentless campaign rhetoric against McCain for being willing to “tax insurance” did not mean the benefit was off-limits in the reform process. “We’re not going to eliminate the exclusion, but we’re certainly going to discuss it,” said Baucus. “The campaign is over. Barack Obama is our president; we have a majority in the House and a Democratic majority in the Senate. But the goal is to work together. I think we’re going to have to use some of Senator McCain’s suggestions in order to get an agreed-upon result.”
In other words, Obama lied, and now that he’s won the election he’s going to break his campaign promises. But, that’s okay because it’s the pragmatic thing to do. Change we can believe in!
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