Unions dodge health tax

[futurebeachbum]

From the New York PostUnions get special treatment in health care.

Its nice to know that it is business as usual in DC. Apaprently this administration is a recruiting arm for big labor. Join a union and don't pay the excise tax on your health care benefits that the rest of us do. Its more fair that way.

Big Labor got some big love from President Obama and congressional Democrats yesterday after they agreed to exempt union workers from the whopping ?Cadillac tax? on high-cost health-care plans until 2018.

The sweetheart deal, hammered out behind closed doors, will save union employees at least $60 billion over the years involved, while others won't be as lucky -- they'll have to cough up almost $90 billion.

The 40 percent excise tax on what have come to be called "Cadillac" health-care plans would exempt collective-bargaining contracts covering government employees and other union members until Jan. 1, 2018

In another major concession to labor, the value of dental and vision plans would be exempt from the tax even after the deal expires in eight years, negotiators said.

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[tsutcli]

.... and the size of the Cadillac Plan before tax sets in went from $23,000 for a family to $24,000. What happened to the promise that this administration would not be influenced by special interests? Oh, and let's not forget that the trial lawyers apparently got away scott free - no tort reform here. What a bunch of sleazy Chicago-style politicians. " Votes for sale here" should be their motto. Change you can believe in?

 

[scooterbug44]

I don't think there should be exemptions!

We start out with a good basic idea and then just screw it up with exemptions and special interests!

 

[Miss Critter]

I don't think there should be exemptions!

We start out with a good basic idea and then just screw it up with exemptions and special interests!

This plan was seriously screwed up long before the exemptions and special interests got involve. Universal healthcare is a worthy goal. Forcing people to buy health insurance should be illegal.

 

[scooterbug44]

I was more talking about legislation in general.

All I want is for premiums to go down (max 10% of income) and everyone who wants health care/insurance to be able to get it - every major "compromise" and backroom deal and exemption seems to move further and further from that goal.

Unions should not be exempt - especially as in many cases they have the ridonkulous health care plans that drive up costs. I don't want to be subsidizing others who CAN afford it, just choose not to.

As far as forcing people to get insurance, I dunno - we force them to save for old age or disability w/ Social Security so the taxpayers don't have to pick up the full tab.

 

[wrobert]

It is getting seriously hard to even care. Obama told more lies than I have fingers, so far, and I am sure the count will continue to rise. I got my first check for 2010 today, and it is less. A great thing to do during a recession, reduce available income. The banks do what they say they are going to do, and the response is to tax them. So why not give the unions a break, they deserve it, they overwhelmingly support this sort of hypocrisy.

 

[Bob]

It is getting seriously hard to even care. Obama told more lies than I have fingers, so far, and I am sure the count will continue to rise. I got my first check for 2010 today, and it is less. A great thing to do during a recession, reduce available income. The banks do what they say they are going to do, and the response is to tax them. So why not give the unions a break, they deserve it, they overwhelmingly support this sort of hypocrisy.

JP Morgan's $9bn payout stokes bonus fury | Business | guardian.co.uk JP Morgan's 24,654 investment bankers, including nearly 5,000 employees in London, will get an average of $379,000 each after the financial services group surfed a wave of recovery in global markets to notch up year-end profits of $11.7bn, more than double its earnings of $5.6bn during crisis-stricken 2008.

 

[Bob]

It is getting seriously hard to even care. Obama told more lies than I have fingers, so far, and I am sure the count will continue to rise. I got my first check for 2010 today, and it is less. A great thing to do during a recession, reduce available income. The banks do what they say they are going to do, and the response is to tax them. So why not give the unions a break, they deserve it, they overwhelmingly support this sort of hypocrisy.

where is your sense of proportion, and what is the value of castigating those with blue collar jobs?

 

[poppy]

It is getting seriously hard to even care. Obama told more lies than I have fingers, so far, and I am sure the count will continue to rise. I got my first check for 2010 today, and it is less. A great thing to do during a recession, reduce available income. The banks do what they say they are going to do, and the response is to tax them. So why not give the unions a break, they deserve it, they overwhelmingly support this sort of hypocrisy.

Some in the working class finally get a break and the conservatives have a sh!t fit over it, not surprising.

 

[30ashopper]

The tax on expensive health plans isn't about revenue, it's designed to "bend the cost curve" down in the health care system making health care for everyone less expensive. This was was one of the primary goals of health care reform, something Obama staked a claim on in the campaign.

Isn't it amazing how quickly special interests can corrupt the idealism of an administration?