Pushing to complete a comprehensive health care overhaul plan by Friday and bring it up for committee votes next week, House Democrats abandoned earlier money-raising proposals, including a payroll tax. They met behind closed doors Thursday to fine-tune the details.
"I promised the president that we would have legislation out of the House before we went on an August break. That is still my goal," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday.
As discussed in the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, the surtax would apply to individuals with adjusted gross income of more than $200,000 and couples over $250,000, according to officials involved in the discussion. Most spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks were private.
Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., a member of the panel, said the panel is looking at a surtax of around 3.5 percent on income above those amounts. Other members suggested it would be closer to 3 percent.
In addition, key lawmakers are expected to call for a tax or fee equal to a percentage of a worker's salary on employers who do not offer health benefits.
Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., has said his committee needs to come up with $600 billion in new taxes to deliver on Obama's goal of sweeping changes to the nation's health care system to bring down costs and cover the 50 million uninsured. Hundreds of billions of dollars more would come from cuts to Medicare and Medicaid to pay for legislation expected to cost around $1 trillion over 10 years.
Lawmakers cautioned that no final decisions have been made. Smaller tax options remained possibilities, depending on the overall cost of the legislation, including a tax on sugared soft drinks and ending a tax break that drug companies receive for advertising.
The action in the House stood in contrast to the Senate, where Democrats edged away from their goal of passing health care legislation by early August amid heightening partisan controversy over tax increases and a proposed new government role in providing insurance to consumers.
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- Crenshaw_Brothers
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What a shocker. I guess cutting pork barrel spending was out of the question.
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way out of the question i guess
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- Crenshaw_Brothers
- 4 months ago
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but no final decisions have been made
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- Crenshaw_Brothers
- 4 months ago
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I like the idea of taxing employers who don't offer it best, but that might kill jobs.
I still want to know more abou the swiss bank account owners that live in the US and hide thier money there so as to not pay taxes. How does this work? Does one have to earn the money out of the country, save is Switzerland, and then brin back just enough to live on per year and try to avoid the 200k mark?
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- good_stuff
- 4 months ago
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I don't know how it works in the US, but it's likely to be the same as here in Canada... The rich here in Canada, especially large corporations, use ridiculous amounts of tax loopholes. They should be taxed to the same relative amounts as lay-people.
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Yes...John A. is correct. God forbid anyone cuts out the pork...esp. when we are busy making stimulus bills that print billions from thin air.
The rich should just get up and leave, and take their education, businesses and jobs with them. muahhahhaah.
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i agree that it would be a great idea! i was thinking that all the working class and the poor are like the wealthys' slaves (like in Greco-Roman times!). We work for them and save our money to "live" like them. We are in a new and more intelligent time. they should be a little okay with the idea as long as their they still get to live in their masion-palace homes and drive their mod cars>
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- barbie_chola89
- 4 months ago
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Gee what a novel idea, tax the people who have money not the ones that don't. These people are Genius no doubt, but I really think they should tax the people who have no money because there are so many more of them even though they can't afford any more taxes there are still more of them, Wait lets just Tax the Bush family and thier cronies on all the money they stold from the Coffers of America, this would end all our troubles, and some justice would be served.
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The rich make their millions off the backs of the working class and poor. It's about time they started picking up a fair share of their health tab.
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Well, at least they thought of it. Do they even pay taxes?
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How bout stop spending on bullshit UNCONSTITUTIONAL WARS and spend that money on healthcare.......
