House Eyes New Taxes As Senators Take Up Trillion-Dollar Health Bill [YIPPEEEEE!]

CNSNews ^ | June 19, 2009 | Erica Werner

[ClassicLiberal]

House Democrats have lots of potential targets for higher taxes as they aim to expand health care coverage, from wealthy Americans and the nation's employers to anyone who pops the top on a soft drink.

Also under consideration are higher alcohol taxes, increases to the Medicare payroll tax and a value-added tax, a sort of national sales tax, of up to 1.5 percent or more.

The list of options being weighed by the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, and obtained Thursday by The Associated Press, aims to raise some $600 billion over 10 years to partially pay for President Barack Obama's goal of overhauling the nation's health care system to tame costs and cover the 50 million uninsured.

The final price tag for that effort could top $1 trillion, with cuts to Medicare and Medicaid covering the rest of the cost.

The tax options include:

-- Increasing the price of soda and other sugary drinks by 10 cents a can.

-- Applying a potential 2 percent income tax increase to single taxpayers earning more than $200,000 a year and households earning more than $250,000.

-- A new employer payroll tax could target 3 percent of employers' health care expenditures.

-- Taxing employer-provided health insurance benefits above certain levels -- a less likely option but one that still is in the running.

House Democrats planned to unveil a draft of their sweeping health care bill Friday. It would require all individuals to obtain health insurance and force employers to offer health care to their workers, with exemptions for small businesses. A new public health insurance plan, strongly opposed by Republicans, would compete with private companies within a new health care purchasing "exchange" where Americans could shop for coverage. Government subsidies would help the poor buy care.

[jessduntno]

“Obama plainly said that he was not going to raise taxes on anyone making less than $200,000 a year. Voters may be stupid (obviously) but the don’t have that short of memories.”

Who will remind them? The (*&^(*&^ MSM media is so far in the tank, every broadcast echoes...remember “READ MY LIPS” don’t think we’ll get that kind of coverage.