POLITICO: Excise tax questions re-emerging (March 17, 2010)
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka is headed into a meeting with President Obama this afternoon after the White House and Congressional leaders have begun to discuss a higher-than-expected excise tax on some health care plans, in order to maintain their claim that health care legislation will reduce the deficit, a source involved in health care talks said. (Those are UNION-negotiated health plans.)
Any unexpected change to the health care plan could endanger support for the bill from labor, which agreed to back it after reductions to the planned excise tax. Proposed new changes, I'm told, concern cuts to the rate at which increases to the tax exemption cap are indexed.
Boston Herald: Rep Stephen Lynch calls health care vote plan ‘disingenuous’ (March 17, 2010)
“It’s disingenuous,” said Lynch, who considers unfair a Senate provision to tack a surcharge on higher-end health plans. “It would really call into question the credibility of the House.”
Oh yes, and then there is the effect on GOVERNMENT unions as demonstrated by the giant hole in the State budget to be created if Obamacare becomes law:
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