"Yes We Can......[jack up the taxes on your healthcare coverage]!"From that right-wing den of inequity known as NPR:
President Obama reaffirmed his support for the so-called Cadillac tax on high-end health plans more directly to Democratic Leaders in a meeting yesterday. He stated his position to NPR in an interview last month.
[snip....]
But the Cadillac tax proposal continues to raffle many Democrats' key union supporters, who say the tax would unfairly affect their people, may of whom have given up wage increases for better health care, and many in the middle class.The tax proposal has especially stung the Communication Workers of America who commissioned a report arguing against it. This has lead House Democrats to largely oppose the proposal.
Sometime over the summer, when the rumors were flying fast and furious about the healthcare legislation and what it contained, I heard a rumor that Congress and Obama would no longer try and pass the proposed Employee Free Choice Act (i.e. Card Check) as stand-alone legislation, but instead try and work something similar into the proposed healthcare legislation. At first blush, one way they could circumvent Card Check even being an issue would be to exempt the so-called 'Cadillac' healthcare plans in union workplaces from this proposed tax, creating artificial incentive for non-union workers to unionize. Turns out I gave the Dems too much credit, they simply want to pass this ginormous turd charitably known as 'healthcare reform' on the backs of the middle class- regardless of union affiliation or lack thereof- to hand the President his first significant legislative 'victory'.
Frankly, I'm not surprised at this opportunistic betrayal of the working class that this current batch in Washington is contemplating. What I would like to see is the union heads try and spin this to their no doubt angry members after campaigning for Obama and numerous Dem politicians who are now trying to erode their benefits.
Also, start looking for a very malleable definiton of what constitutes a 'Cadillac' healthcare plan, kind of like how Obama and Biden had a very flexible threshold on what sort of income constituted 'wealthy' or the left/progressives in general moving around the goalposts for the definition of 'patriotic' [remember, dissent stopped being patriotic in January 2009- NANESB!]
Remember when John McCain suggested this and Obama slammed him for it. Apparrently he was against it before he was fior it.
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