Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Obama Suggests Taxing Health Benefits a Possibility
Roll Call ^ | June 24, 2009, 10:25 p.m. | Keith Koffler

Posted on 06/24/2009 7:58:55 PM PDT by redreno

President Barack Obama on Wednesday night opened the door further than he has in the past to taxing health benefits to pay for health care reform.

(Excerpt) Read more at rollcall.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: healthcare; wealthshare
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-24 next last

1 posted on 06/24/2009 7:58:56 PM PDT by redreno
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: redreno

The whole reason “benefits” came into existence in the first place, was because government created a tax incentive for them, after capping salaries led to a corporate inability to hire real talent. Taxing benefits destroys the whole reason they existed in the first place, a bandaid on gangrene.


2 posted on 06/24/2009 8:02:04 PM PDT by coloradan (The US has become a banana republic, except without the bananas - or the republic.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: redreno

Americans will not stand for their health benefits being taxed.


3 posted on 06/24/2009 8:02:10 PM PDT by tioga
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: tioga

Americans won’t find out about it before the vote unless we all talk to our neighbors about it.


4 posted on 06/24/2009 8:03:49 PM PDT by Carling ("We've lost two people in my family because you dickheads won't cut trees down," - Warwick Spooner)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: redreno

0bimbo wants to shove 0bamacare down our throats and then wants to tax it? Does anyone else see a problem with this?


5 posted on 06/24/2009 8:08:08 PM PDT by Sarajevo (You jealous because the voices only talk to me.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: redreno

It is all part of the plan to FORCE EVERY PERSON under Obama DeathCare. What better way to get employers and individuals to stop using, or severely reduce, private health care??? Tax it to death, of course. This guy is not fooling anyone.

Like all radical liberals blinded by a rabid lust for power, they do not think beyond their damaging actions. The medical industry will come apart, be very weak, and we will end up like Canada and the UK. With a lot of dead and sick people NEEDLESSLY. All to satisfy a LUST FOR POWER.


6 posted on 06/24/2009 8:08:55 PM PDT by EagleUSA
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: redreno

Most of the Obamabots don’t pay taxes, don’t have employers, don’t receive employer provided benefits, and simply don’t care.


7 posted on 06/24/2009 8:14:27 PM PDT by lightman (Adjutorium nostrum (+) in nomine Domini.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: redreno

Will he tax both private health benefits and public health benefits such as medicare, medicaid, kidcare, allcare, SSI?

Or will he show favoritism?


8 posted on 06/24/2009 8:20:04 PM PDT by spintreebob
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

I have to buy my health insurance with after-tax money.

Why am I special?


9 posted on 06/24/2009 8:21:00 PM PDT by digger48
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: coloradan
The whole reason “benefits” came into existence in the first place, was because government created a tax incentive for them, after capping salaries led to a corporate inability to hire real talent.

Not exactly. The whole reason "benefits" came into existence in the first place was because government created "wage controls" during WW II. Offering "benefits" was a tax-free method of competing for labor.

So, yes, it was government who created the incentive for benefits -- but as an unintended consequence of policy.

10 posted on 06/24/2009 8:23:40 PM PDT by okie01 (THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA: Ignorance on Parade)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: redreno

but...”no one making less than 250,000 dollars will see their taxes, any taxes, increase by so much as a dime”


11 posted on 06/24/2009 8:24:45 PM PDT by madamemayhem (there are only two places in the world: over here and over there.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: lightman

Most Obamabots in my definition of them are the ones who work for a government from school teacher to IRS bureaucrat to social worker ...or the work for a government funded agency or program such as subsidized renewable energy or Planned Parenthood or daycare, etc. Their money comes from the government. They think that they “work”. But mostly their work is composed of filling out all the paperwork necessary to get those government grants and loans that will never be paid back.


12 posted on 06/24/2009 8:25:16 PM PDT by spintreebob
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: redreno

Yes paying a tax so others can have benefits is much different than the “free” everyone has in their mind!


13 posted on 06/24/2009 8:25:18 PM PDT by chris_bdba
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: lightman

Most Obamabots in my definition of them are the ones who work for a government from school teacher to IRS bureaucrat to social worker ...or the work for a government funded agency or program such as subsidized renewable energy or Planned Parenthood or daycare, etc. Their money comes from the government. They think that they “work”. But mostly their work is composed of filling out all the paperwork necessary to get those government grants and loans that will never be paid back.


14 posted on 06/24/2009 8:25:29 PM PDT by spintreebob
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: tioga
Americans will not stand for their health benefits being taxed.

You are right. No, they won't.

They'll sit there quietly.

In the waiting room.

Until they die.

America -- a great idea, didn't last.

15 posted on 06/24/2009 8:32:44 PM PDT by Clint Williams (Read Roto-Reuters -- we're the spinmeisters | America -- a great idea, didn't last.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: okie01

Um, I think we agree. I wrote “after capping salaries” i.e. wage controls, and I wrote “led to a corporate inability to hire real talent” i.e. competing for labor.


16 posted on 06/24/2009 8:33:14 PM PDT by coloradan (The US has become a banana republic, except without the bananas - or the republic.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: coloradan
Um, I think we agree.

We do. But you expressed it as a conscious government policy -- tax incentives. It was, in fact, an unintended consequence -- of wage controls.

17 posted on 06/24/2009 8:36:07 PM PDT by okie01 (THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA: Ignorance on Parade)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: redreno

So, the people who work for responsible employers have to pay for the people who work for deadbeat employers.


18 posted on 06/24/2009 8:40:57 PM PDT by reg45 (Be calm everyone. The idiot children are in charge!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: redreno

Didn’t ridicule and attack McCain during a debate for having this idea?


19 posted on 06/24/2009 8:47:11 PM PDT by Orbiting_Rosie's_Head (argh)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: okie01

I thought it was a conscious policy, Congress basically said, because we have capped salaries and now you can’t hire talent, we won’t count freebies like health care against our own salary caps, so go ahead and have at it. Ergo, corporations started offering these as perks to get around the salary caps.

Controlling wages is error #1. Creating benefits gets around this but has caused prices to be insulated from health care users, and inserted a middleman (one’s employer) into the doctor-patient relationship, increasing prices. Error #2. Error #3 would be taxing the benefits, which destroys the whole reason they came into being, without undoing the harm they have caused to the price of health care.


20 posted on 06/24/2009 8:48:25 PM PDT by coloradan (The US has become a banana republic, except without the bananas - or the republic.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-24 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson