Pelosi: Obama Committed To Unpopular Excise Tax

Please hurry up and pass the thing. We already know the final bill will look very similar to the Senate bill because they don't have room to pass anything else. So hurry up and pass so you can start talking about the economy.

I'm sure there will be compromises made that we just have to swallow, but this one is enough to gag me. As a union member for a company which has for the past two years had waves of lay-offs, cumpulsory wage freezes and salary freezes, my "Cadillac" health plan is just about the last decent benefit left. And over the years other unions have bargained away a lot of other reasonable benefits, to hang on to good medical health insurance. The AFL-CIO will be up in arms about this, as well they should be. There must be another way.

Why the phucking hell are all these damned Dems like Obama afraid to tax the rich? The skew in income redistribution to the wealthiest Americans has been going on non-stop for decades and has resulted in the crumbling of working class and middle class lives. WTF? Why continue to pile taxes and misery on the people least able to pay, and at the same time keep kissing the ass of millionaires and billionaires like they shit gold and roses? The super wealthy have made off with all the economic gains of the last decade and Obama just sits there like it's business as usual. Fuck Obama! He is going to get his ass handed to him in 2010 by the crazy asses because all the decent average folks are just demoralized and disgusted.

It was my understanding that the Senate bill also raises the Medicare tax on high income earners so it is not as regressive as you suggest in your framing, Brian.

In addition, I wish someone would get into the history of financing entitlement programs, which are not soeasily cut, vs. welfare programs, which are easily cut. I think it would lead to a greater understanding of the thorny financing issues.

To wit, Social Security and Medicare are "self-financed" with demonstrably regressive taxes and they have survived. Those programs financed out of general revenues always go on the chopping block when the Republicans regain control in the quest for lower and lower marginal rates.

I do a lot of ranting, but I do it out of life experience.

My sister had one of those Cadillac health plans. The kind so few of us have today. It didn't save her life, but it made it possible for her to die in dignity and it made it possible for my parents to have dignity in their old age because they would have spent every dime they had rather than let her suffer in any way that money could have made a difference.

The Democratic Party now believes that this is too good for the middle class. One wonders if they believe a middle class has any value at all.

There are Cadillace health plans and there are Clunker health plans. We know which kind we're going to get.

But YOU MAKE THE LAW, Pelousy. And we all know that the definition of "Cadillac" will be what most middle class Americans already have. What? Didn't you know you're driving a Cadillac Insurance?

My wife's a public school teacher and her health insurance plan, negotiated by her union, is close to the so-called "Cadillac" level. But believe me, it doesn't pay for Shiatsu massage therapy or spa treatments. In fact, it doesn't even cover needed physical therapy. It's simply a decent health care plan that costs a lot because we're in a high-cost state and the group's population skews older. Without indexing, this will soon hit the "Cadillac" threshold and we'll be faced with a huge increase in out-of-pocket costs.

I'm glad that Pelosi is pushing back hard on this; it is a horrible policy that within a decade will impact almost half of the population. Hopefully there will be at least some compromise between the two funding mechanisms (higher threshold for "Cadillac" plans, lower taxes for the rich).

Pelosi commited to wearing a ravaged & craggy face which horrifies anyone not a fan of slasher movies.

I never heard a progressive campaigning. I heard a pragmatist.

What a load of crap. The man promised change. He promised to stand up for the middle class. He promised to fight the corporations and special interests. He gave soaring speeches promising a new direction and a new deal. Well, from aqll of the data in so far, he lied his ass off to get elected and exploited people's hope for something and someone better.

He's worse than Bush IMO because he has killed hope and has killed any hope of real change in my life time while continuing with nearly all of Bush's policies on anything of consequence. He has affirmed that this is and always will be a country run by the rich for the rich.

Yes we can! What a load of crap!

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