Barack Obama,  Health

Obama Considers Taxing Worker’s Health Care Benefits

March 12, 2009 /
Obama Campaign Ad: “It Gets Worse” highlights that first we learned John McCain wanted to tax health care benefits to pay for part of his health care plan, and now the Wall Street Journal reports that McCain would pay for the rest of his plan by making “major reductions to Medicare and Medicaid,” eight hundred and eighty two billion from Medicare alone. We simply can’t afford John McCain.

Say it isn’t so. Obama who heavily criticised John McCain just a few months ago about his health care plan is considering the EXACT same thing – taxing worker’s health benefits.

So far, administration officials have been careful not to endorse the idea, which Obama blasted as a major tax increase last year after Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) made it the centerpiece of his presidential campaign’s health plan. But the president hasn’t slammed the door on it, either.

This week, White House budget director Peter Orszag said taxing employer benefits was among several ideas that “most firmly should remain on the table.” White House economic adviser Jason Furman called for an end to the so-called “employer exclusion” before he joined the administration. Meanwhile, some congressional Democrats say the White House has signaled that Obama would accept a tax on employer benefits as long as he didn’t have to propose it himself.

Flap remembers these campaign ads tearing up the airwaves in Nevada over the summer. But, here we have…. Another case where Obama’s campaign statements come with an expiration date.

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2 Comments

  • Joseph W Herber

    June 27, 2009 at 8:25 am

    Here we go again .It seams like every time someone needs to make up money the American workers get the shaft.
    I remember that last year John Mcain wanted to or prposed that the government tax benefits of workers.
    What should be done is tax people that can afford it. The American worker today is the but of all the proposals for additional taxes.
    It would not hurt business if taxes were levied it would be the responsibility of the worker. To get an additional tax bill at the end of the year would defeat any way of saving any money at all. Even if it were a weekly thing the additional tax would make any worker see red ink.
    There is far to much pressure put on the lower workers in this country.Keep increasing taxes and if you thought that there was a revolution in 1775 just keep at it.If you all of a sudden did away with SS, taxes benefits,and other benfits there would be your start of the ruin of the country.
    Its time for all the people in Congress and the Senate to start giving up benefits.All the people in Washington to start giving back to the American people!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!