Revised health bill - CNN & Fox report new taxes & fees, including investments!

[shootfighter1]

Health Bill revision now extends wage tax to investments

For the first time, the Medicare payroll tax would be applied to investment income, beginning in 2013 under Obama's health care overhaul bill.

 
WASHINGTON - High-income families would be hit with a tax increase on wages and a new levy on investments under President Barack Obama's health care overhaul bill.

For the first time, the Medicare payroll tax would be applied to investment income, beginning in 2013. A new 3.8 percent tax would be imposed on interest, dividends, capital gains and other investment income for individuals making more than $200,000 a year and couples making more than $250,000.

The bill also would increase the Medicare payroll tax by 0.9 percentage point to 2.35 percent on wages above $200,000 for individuals and $250,000 for married couples filing jointly.

The new tax on investment income is higher than the 2.9 percent tax proposed by President Barack Obama. House Democratic leaders increased it so they could reduce the impact of a new tax on high-cost health insurance plans strongly opposed by labor unions.

The 40 percent tax on health benefits would be delayed until 2018 and would apply only to premiums exceeding $10,200 a year for individuals and $27,500 for families.

The search for revenue to pay for health care has been made more difficult by Obama's campaign pledge not to raise taxes on the middle class. The result is a bill that would raise a total of $438 billion in new taxes over the next decade, mainly from high-income taxpayers and fees on the health care industry.

Taxing the rich to pay for health insurance would represent a significant departure from the way Americans have financed safety net programs in the past.

Both Social Security and Medicare are supported by broad-based payroll taxes. Although the rich pay more -- they have bigger incomes -- the burden is shared by the middle class and even the working poor.

"This is the problem with a $1 trillion bill," said Rep. Dave Camp of Michigan, the top Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee. "They've got to find all these ways to pay for it."

The $940 billion, 10-year health care bill would extend coverage to an estimated 32 million people who now lack it, while reducing the budget deficit by $138 billion over the next decade.

The bill envisions billions in savings from Medicare to help finance expanded coverage.

Democrats argue that high-income families fared well under tax cuts enacted in the past decade, so it's time to pay up. Republicans argue that many of those taxpayers are small business owners struggling to stay afloat.

"I have no problem with it," Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., said of the new Medicare taxes. "Income is income. Most Americans work by the hour, get paid by the hour. Some other people get their money in other ways but it's still income."

Medicare payroll taxes traditionally have been low and predictable: a 1.45 percent tax on wages, paid by both employers and workers. The money is taken out of workers' pay before they see it. There are no forms to file, no deductions to claim.

Under the new health care bill, married couples with combined incomes approaching $250,000 would have to keep tabs on their spouses' pay to avoid an unexpected tax bill. Those with investments would have to pay even more attention to the income they earn from interest, dividends and capital gains.

"Unless they are very conscientious folks who constantly monitor their income tax withholding, they're going to have quite a surprise when they go to file their income taxes," said Jeffrey L. Kummer, director of tax policy at Deloitte Tax LLP.

The new Medicare taxes would raise an estimated $210 billion over the next decade. The new tax on investments would be on top of capital gains and dividends tax increases already proposed by Obama. The president wants to increase the top tax rate on capital gains and dividends from 15 percent to 20 percent. If Congress goes along, the new top rate would be 23.8 percent in 2013, when the health care taxes kick in.

Projected revenues from the tax increases over the next decade, according to the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation:

-- The new tax on high-cost insurance plans, $32 billion.

-- A fee on the makers and importers of brand-name drugs, $27 billion.

-- An excise tax on the makers and importers of certain medical devices, $20 billion.

-- An annual fee on health insurance providers, starting in 2014, $60 billion.

-- The repeal of a tax loophole that could allow paper manufacturers to get tax credits for generating alternative fuel in the paper making process, $24 billion.

 
  
 
  
 
 
 
  

[shootfighter1]

Here is the CNN article.  If the senate bill passes, I hope the reconciliation 'fix' fails!  Unfair.

http://money.cnn.com/2010/03/18/news/economy/cbo_reconciliation/index.htm?hpt=T1

[Soul Crusher]

This bill is so disastrous on so many levels.

THE FUCKING IRS IS GETTING INVOLVED IN YOUR HEALTHCARE YOU MORONS!!!!

[Soul Crusher]

Caterpillar: Health care bill would cost it $100M
Published on March 19, 2010 7:10 AM | Submit a comment
Dow Jones Newswires | Caterpillar Inc. said the health-care overhaul legislation being considered by the U.S. House would increase the company's health-care costs by more than $100 million in the first year alone.

In a letter Thursday to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and House Republican Leader John Boehner of Ohio, Caterpillar urged lawmakers to vote against the plan "because of the substantial cost burdens it would place on our shareholders, employees and retirees."
Caterpillar, the world's largest construction machinery manufacturer by sales, said it's particularly opposed to provisions in the bill that would expand Medicare taxes and mandate insurance coverage. The legislation would require nearly all companies to provide health insurance for their employees or face large fines.

The Peoria-based company said these provisions would increase its insurance costs by at least 20 percent, or more than $100 million, just in the first year of the health-care overhaul program.

"We can ill-afford cost increases that place us at a disadvantage versus our global competitors," said the letter signed by Gregory Folley, vice president and chief human resources officer of Caterpillar. "We are disappointed that efforts at reform have not addressed the cost concerns we've raised throughout the year."

Business executives have long complained that the options offered for covering 32 million uninsured Americans would result in higher insurance costs for those employers that already provide coverage. Opponents have stepped up their attacks in recent days as the House moves closer toward a vote on the Senate version of the health-care legislation.

A letter Thursday to President Barack Obama and members of Congress signed by more than 130 economists predicted the legislation would discourage companies from hiring more workers and would cause reduced hours and wages for those already employed.

Caterpillar noted that the company supports efforts to increase the quality and the value of health care for patients as well as lower costs for employer-sponsored insurance coverage.

"Unfortunately, neither the current legislation in the House and Senate, nor the president's proposal, meets these goals," the letter said.

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[Option D]

Here is the CNN article.  If the senate bill passes, I hope the reconciliation 'fix' fails!  Unfair.

http://money.cnn.com/2010/03/18/news/economy/cbo_reconciliation/index.htm?hpt=T1

Shoot when you did res...did you do crazy hours?

[shootfighter1]

Yeah bro, I did.  The year after I graduated residency, they passed some limit on hours for residents but ya'll are still working crazy, I know.  I remember working 90-100 hour weeks in several rotations.  It does get better in practice (if you choose wisely).  I work about 50 hrs/week.

[Option D]

Yeah bro, I did.  The year after I graduated residency, they passed some limit on hours for residents but ya'll are still working crazy, I know.  I remember working 90-100 hour weeks in several rotations.  It does get better in practice (if you choose wisely).  I work about 50 hrs/week.

Ok.. I thought i was gettin a raw deal. Im sleepy..

Thanks

[Soul Crusher]

Ok.. I thought i was gettin a raw deal. Im sleepy..

Thanks

You are getting a raw deal if ObamaCare passes.  A very very very bad raw deal.   

[Option D]

You are getting a raw deal if ObamaCare passes.  A very very very bad raw deal.   

Noted

[GigantorX]

Noted

Duly noted.

[Soul Crusher]

This is a very honest post from a usual Dem. Commentator
________________________ ________________________ ______________


Published on Friday, March 19, 2010 by Creators Syndicate
What's the Matter with Demorcrats?
by David Sirota

Ever since Thomas Frank published his book "What's the Matter With Kansas?" Democrats have sought a political strategy to match the GOP's. The health care bill proves they've found one.

Whereas Frank highlighted Republicans' sleight-of-hand success portraying millionaire tax cuts as gifts to the working class, Democrats are now preposterously selling giveaways to insurance and pharmaceutical executives as a middle-class agenda. Same formula, same fat cat beneficiaries, same bleating sheeple herded to the slaughterhouse. The only difference is the Rube Goldberg contraption that Democrats are using to tend the flock.

First, their leaders campaign on pledges to create a government insurer (a "public option") that will compete with private health corporations. Once elected, though, Democrats propose simply subsidizing those corporations, which are (not coincidentally) filling Democratic coffers. Justifying the reversal, Democrats claim the subsidies will at least help some citizens try to afford the private insurance they'll be forced to buy - all while insisting Congress suddenly lacks the votes for a public option.

Despite lawmakers' refusal to hold votes verifying that assertion, liberal groups obediently follow orders to back the bill, their obsequious leaders fearing scorn from Democratic insiders and moneymen. Specifically, MoveOn, unions and "progressive" non-profits threaten retribution against lawmakers who consider voting against the bill because it doesn't include a public option. The threats fly even though these congresspeople would be respecting their previous public-option ultimatums - ultimatums originally supported by many of the same groups now demanding retreat.

Soon it's on to false choices. Democrats tell their base that any bill is better than no bill, even one making things worse, and that if this particular legislation doesn't pass, Republicans will win the upcoming election - as if signing a blank check to insurance and drug companies couldn't seal that fate. They tell everyone else that "realistically" this is the "last chance" for reform, expecting We the Sheeple to forget that those spewing the do-or-die warnings control the legislative calendar and could immediately try again.

Predictably, the fear-mongering prompts left-leaning Establishment pundits to bless the bill, giving Democratic activists concise-yet-mindless conversation-enders for why everyone should shut up and fall in line ("Krugman supports it!").

Such bumper-sticker mottos are then demagogued by Democratic media bobbleheads and their sycophants, who dishonestly imply that the bill's progressive opponents 1) secretly aim to aid the far right and/or 2) actually hope more Americans die for lack of health care. In the process, the legislation's sellouts are lambasted as the exclusive fault of Republicans, not Democrats and their congressional majorities.
Earth sufficiently scorched, President Obama then barnstorms the country, calling the bill a victory for "ordinary working folks" over the same corporations he is privately promising to enrich. The insurance industry, of course, airs token ads to buttress Obama's "victory" charade - at the same time its lobbyists are, according to Politico, celebrating with chants of "we win!"

By design, pro-public-option outfits like Firedoglake and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee end up depicted as voices of the minority, even as they champion an initiative that polls show the majority of voters support. Meanwhile, telling questions hang: If this represents victory over special interests, why is Politico reporting that "drug industry lobbyists have huddled with Democratic staffers" to help pass the bill? How is the legislation a first step to reform, as proponents argue, if it financially and politically strengthens insurance and drug companies opposing true change? And what prevents those companies from continuing to increase prices?

These queries go unaddressed - and often unasked. Why? Because their answers threaten to expose the robbery in progress, circumvent the "What's the Matter with Kansas?" contemplation and raise the most uncomfortable question of all:

What's the matter with Democrats?

© 2010 Creators Syndicate

David Sirota is a bestselling author whose newest book is "The Uprising." He is a fellow at the Campaign for America's Future and a board member of the Progressive States Network-both nonpartisan organizations. Sirota was once US Senator Bernie Sanders' spokesperson. His blog is at www.credoaction.com/sirota.

[shootfighter1]

Mal, you're seeing first hand why I argue for primary docs to make more money and argue against socialist healthcare, which typically slash physician wages.  We go through so much to become a doc and it is so competitive, then when you're out in the work place, we're doing one of the most important jobs with life & death decisions.  Stressful job, continued education forever and long hours with many demands.  It's wonderful but not easy.

Hang in there bro.  Get some zzzs.  I got through med school & residency by spending some time away from school when needed (MMA, lifting, hanging out with non-school buddies).

[Option D]

Mal, you're seeing first hand why I argue for primary docs to make more money and argue against socialist healthcare, which typically slash physician wages.  We go through so much to become a doc and it is so competitive, then when you're out in the work place, we're doing one of the most important jobs with life & death decisions.  Stressful job, continued education forever and long hours with many demands.  It's wonderful but not easy.

Hang in there bro.  Get some zzzs.  I got through med school & residency by spending some time away from school when needed (MMA, lifting, hanging out with non-school buddies).

Yeah im not for this healthcare bill right now either..

Im supposed to lift more but i seem to go to the hospital and then to sleep. Its gettin pretty stressful as of right now.

[240 is Back]

this bill is a turd that is secretly filled with corn.

You just don't know it until you bite into the crap sandwich!

[BM OUT]

Yeah im not for this healthcare bill right now either..

Im supposed to lift more but i seem to go to the hospital and then to sleep. Its gettin pretty stressful as of right now.

Your priorities are backward.Never mind all that money making bullshit.When you die all God is going to ask is "how much did you squat and bench".Quit the job,lift the weights.lol.

[Option D]

Your priorities are backward.Never mind all that money making bullshit.When you die all God is going to ask is "how much did you squat and bench".Quit the job,lift the weights.lol.

Hell yeah...God is gonna say "Hmmm i see you didnt follow my 3rd commandment...Thou shalt Dead Lift"

[MRDUMPLING]

Hell yeah...God is gonna say "Hmmm i see you didnt follow my 3rd commandment...Thou shalt Dead Lift"

Or...you didn't squat enough my son.  Leg extensions are for sinners!