U.S. House May Include Surtax on Wealthy (4% above $200K)in Health-Care Package

Bloomberg | July 7, 2009 | Ryan J. Donmoyer

[reaganaut1]

No excerpt allowed from Bloomberg.com, story here .

[CSM]

Very worthwhile revision.

[stuartcr]

Nope, just a response, although if my wife and I earned 200K, we would consider ourselves to be extremely wealthy.

[Oldexpat]

You have many middle class families who have two hard working parents earning 200k. It could be a teacher and a fireman here in CA. The extra 4% would come straight out of their housing costs..and further kill the housing market. People like that aren’t going to give up their savings..cause they know they need it. They are already going to hold on to their old cars. But, they will scale back their home purchase to match their take home pay.

[bill1952]

Or Sports figure.
Or hollywood trash actors(esses).
Or a singer that makes such a huge contribution to humanity with his or her very presence - like Brittany or Madonna

[Free America52]

So they want to tax (some of) us to fix a health care program that is not broken and one that 87% of the general population doesn’t want. We need to get these arseholes out of Washington.

[taildragger]

What no 4% match from the Employer?

( sarc/off.... )

Hey maybe if Country Wide gets into the medical business, Dodd and Frank can get a sweetheart deal...

Ewww... I can't believe I said Frank and sweetheart in the same sentence....

[BigBobber]

Zero keeps telling us health care reform is going to save money. So why do they need to raise taxes?

[AppyPappy]

Smokescreen. That won’t give them enough money. Remember Clinton tax on millionaires?

Any tax increase will hit everyone making over $50k

[taildragger]

The 4% will come out of their 401(k)'s but that is ok...

These stooges will go along with Rep Miller's Gov't Annunity sceme to replace 401's etc, because it will help ease their pain....

You didn't see that coming?

[OpusatFR]

” although if my wife and I earned 200K, we would consider ourselves to be extremely wealthy.”

Depends upon where you live.

My kids make $235K married and can’t afford to buy a house in Arlington VA where they live.

A tiny craftsman on a miniscule lot is 800K

[I am Richard Brandon]

Remember sheeple - at least half the voting population THINK that they don't pay taxes so they will vote for each and every increase. What the suckers don't realize is that they do pay a multitude of hidden and not-so-hidden taxes, and then the pols play a shell game so that no one know what they are paying. Your City taxes end up in the state's coffers, the Feds are handing out subsidies to companies and local government and citizens, fees are payable here, there and everywhere - who knows?

That dumb half will always vote your taxes up.

[HoosierHawk]

...and was projected to reap as much as $832 billion over 10 years.

As if the government sowed it...

[lgwdnbdgr]

I thought nobody making less then 250k was going to get a tax increase?

All of the extra charges on people making less than 250k are, essentially, voluntary. Obama isn't, thus, raising their taxes, they are raising their own taxes.

Obama isn't making them smoke... have private health insurance... use energy... have a job... it's all voluntary.

[Arkinsaw]

My kids make $235K married and can’t afford to buy a house in Arlington VA where they live.

A tiny craftsman on a miniscule lot is 800K

Yep, it will kill middle class people in places like that. It won't hurt very many where I am though.

I expect Texas to get another population boost for sure.

[rabscuttle385]

The Democrats are stupid...jacking up taxes in the middle of the worst recession since the 1930s. Of course, they did the same thing back then, too, and look where that got the US.

[M203M4]

I’m surprised they are not aiming for a psychologically-sound 1%.

Why? OK, what benefit is there to introducing a minimum mileage requirement of 1 mpg for cars? Easy. To opponents, they simply say, “what on earth is wrong with you? Do you honestly believe a car that gets less than 1 mpg should belong on the road, or that such a car is even necessary by any stretch of the imagination? This is a common-sense rule all Americans can afford and embrace! Honestly, how can one say 1 mpg is too much to ask?” What follows is obvious.

For the wealthy-tax, it will be cut down to 1% in the senate, and will then pass. Even 0.001% is all they politically need, because after that it is a case of adjusting an existing lever, or engineering formulae such that rates automatically adjust to higher levels gradually with time and/or abruptly via the triggering of certain conditions. They can take 1% in 2010, and by 2013 get that up to 4%, with the additional rate applying to incomes down to the $125k level (kept in constant 2009 dollars...they have learned that indexing tax brackets to inflation is a big no-no - it is only convenient for government benefits to be thusly indexed).

[La Lydia]

From each according to his ability, to each according to his need -- Karl Marx

[americanophile]

The damage these idiots are doing to our nation's shorterm and longterm economic viability is breathtaking. They are chasing private capital out of the country as fast as possible and saddling us with insurmountable debt. Simply breathtaking.

[freespirited]

Move every dime you can into a Roth IRA.

If you make more than 100K/year you can’t do it this year, but you will be able to do it next year.

[stuartcr]

My wife and I have lived in a number of places, and we’ve never earned 200k. I would consider myself wealthy if I made that much, anywhere.