AMERICAblog: AP: McCain to tax your health benefits
Dave of the Jungle
· 1 year ago
Somebody has to pay for continuous war.
maudegonne
· 1 year ago
Since Bush took office, with Republicans in charge of Congress for most of the last eight years, there has been little appetite for reaching across the aisle. The two sides, he says, are so divided that they are incapable of recognizing what he sees as the looming crisis of our time — the massive debt accumulated during the Bush years. The only time the two parties agree, he noted scornfully, is to spend vast sums of money to prop up the economy and win re-election. He voted against the economic stimulus package last spring as a result. “The fiscal thing is awful,” he told me. “When you’re running $300, $400 billion a year in debt every single year and nobody wants to face the issue, the time is coming pretty soon where it’s going to have a huge effect on things.”
The collapse of Wall Street reinforced his view that Washington has fallen down on the job. “Nobody keeps an eye on anything unless it hurts the other party,” he said. With the situation now threatening widespread economic damage, Davis told me in late September that he expected he would have to go along with a massive bailout proposed by the Bush administration. But he fretted that it would only worsen the nation’s balance sheet and tie the hands of the next president. “This compounds the whole deficit issue,” he said. “It’s huge. I listen to McCain and Obama and they mean well. But there’s no money to do anything.” http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/05/magazine/05Da...
lynchie
· 1 year ago
Well Bush would know since he has pissed away over $1 Trillion in Iraq. He doesn't give a shit about spending. The only times he complained were when it might benefit the middle class and poor.
ucsbclassics53
· 1 year ago
yeah then he discovers fiscal conservatism or whatever the hell that's supposed to mean...
In addition to taxing your health benefits, McCain's taxing structure in general doesn't fair well either.
Go to this site and see how well you fare under McCain and Obama tax plans. It was created using the information from each candidate. It is a pretty good guideline.
I have long been saying (to anyone who will listen to me, which means that's an increasingly smaller number of people!) that this is one of two issues with which Obama needs to hit McCain hard. The other is their respective scorecards from the Disabled American Veterans and the Iraq-Afghanistan Veterans organizations. And, perhaps, that's why we're seeing this now (plus the tax-on-benefits got brought up in the VP debate) in the final weeks of the campaign. There may be a few other such issues, but both demonstrate -- with issues -- that McCain is out of touch with middle-class voters and with the veterans, even as he takes the support of both for granted. And the facts behind both issues are simple, counter-intuitive narratives to the prevailing reputation McCain still has as a low-tax, pro-veteran politician among so much of the electorate.
But then, the Obama campaign has been pretty smart so far, mostly campaigning how it needs to as the situation demands. So I will not be surprised if they've been working on their October plan since the spring. The financial bailout certainly threw McCain off-balance, but I don't get the sense that even without it that his campaign has had much of a plan beyond the oft-noted Hail Mary pass when they feel desperate.
I will also say that the discipline of the Obama campaign against the assumptions, drama and infighting of the Clinton campaign, or against the shoot-from-the-hip style of the McCain campaign, says quite a lot about the Executive Branch each of these candidates would run.
Fireblazes(CheetohsandCatfood)
· 1 year ago
Next he will want to tax Social Security and medicare as normal income.
gumbygirl
· 1 year ago
I think he wants to gamble with those.
AdrianBrowne
· 1 year ago
The Rapture is a plan too.
devlzadvocate
· 1 year ago
It just sounds like another shell game. IF you get company paid health insurance, the portion that is paid by the company is taxed. But, then you get a $5,000 tax credit that won't make any difference for most people who make over a certain amount. So, if it is paid by the company, you get taxed and get no credit and if you pay it yourself you get a credit that doesn't work unless you make over a certain amount. Add another 500 pages to the tax code.
I thought these folks wanted to simplify the tax code?
gwpriester
· 1 year ago
Not to mention that both health plans use tax breaks to provide money to get health care. But what about the people who are not earning enough money to have to pay taxes? How do they get health care?
scottinsf
· 1 year ago
"Wow" that AP is reporting it or wow that he wants to tax health benefits as income? It's no secret that this has been the centerpiece of his plan for quite some time. Please tell me you aren't just finding this out.
freshpaint
· 1 year ago
radical == not conservative, not moderate.
This word should be repeated at least as much as "maverick" is.
Scary scary plan. I can think of no other issue that can resonate with workers who have benefits right now, since October is often the month they can choose different options for their plans. If your employer continues to want to cover you, he won't get the credit and you'll have to pay taxes on it. If not, just try to find individual health coverage these days -- and for 5000 bucks for a family, too! The best plan I could find even 10 years ago for individual coverage was 175 a month. I can't imagine what it is now. Plus I'm 10 years older. I have no health insurance at all.
Here's hoping I don't have heart disease or cancer or a tumor or something. Then I'd have a pre-existing condition and may as well start digging my grave.
lynchie
· 1 year ago
A decent plan is over $12,000 a year. You never know what is covered until you have a claim.
freshpaint
· 1 year ago
And then, I'm sure, you'll find out it isn't covered because you didn't get preapproval, or they claim you lied on the application, or any damn thing they want.
A thousand a month for individual coverage? I barely make 12,000 a year as it is! Without my savings...
...uh wait. What savings? I think Wall Street just et my savings.
Spending out of pocket for a plan costs the same whether you make 500,000 a year, 50,000 a year, or 5,000 a year. It's just that to a McCain, 12,000 is chump change.
None of these people have ever spent even a minute wondering about that weird tingling feeling in the hands you get when you bend over. They just go to a doctor. It's an alternate reality for the rest of us.
skbenja
· 1 year ago
Wow, now the rest of America can kind of feel like gay couples do. I pay federal and state taxes on the benefits my partner receives.
KarenMrsLloydRichards
· 1 year ago
Note how the Obama campaign is firing this shot just 32 days away from E-day! Now, THAT'S a winning strategy! (The total "arc" planned by Plouffe and Axelrod is effin' awesome).
All Comments
The collapse of Wall Street reinforced his view that Washington has fallen down on the job. “Nobody keeps an eye on anything unless it hurts the other party,” he said. With the situation now threatening widespread economic damage, Davis told me in late September that he expected he would have to go along with a massive bailout proposed by the Bush administration. But he fretted that it would only worsen the nation’s balance sheet and tie the hands of the next president. “This compounds the whole deficit issue,” he said. “It’s huge. I listen to McCain and Obama and they mean well. But there’s no money to do anything.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/05/magazine/05Da...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCg8cmmQ6hE
The American Promise:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCx0J3NiABY
Go to this site and see how well you fare under McCain and Obama tax plans. It was created using the information from each candidate. It is a pretty good guideline.
http://www.electiontaxes.com/
But then, the Obama campaign has been pretty smart so far, mostly campaigning how it needs to as the situation demands. So I will not be surprised if they've been working on their October plan since the spring. The financial bailout certainly threw McCain off-balance, but I don't get the sense that even without it that his campaign has had much of a plan beyond the oft-noted Hail Mary pass when they feel desperate.
I will also say that the discipline of the Obama campaign against the assumptions, drama and infighting of the Clinton campaign, or against the shoot-from-the-hip style of the McCain campaign, says quite a lot about the Executive Branch each of these candidates would run.
I thought these folks wanted to simplify the tax code?
This word should be repeated at least as much as "maverick" is.
Scary scary plan. I can think of no other issue that can resonate with workers who have benefits right now, since October is often the month they can choose different options for their plans. If your employer continues to want to cover you, he won't get the credit and you'll have to pay taxes on it. If not, just try to find individual health coverage these days -- and for 5000 bucks for a family, too! The best plan I could find even 10 years ago for individual coverage was 175 a month. I can't imagine what it is now. Plus I'm 10 years older. I have no health insurance at all.
Here's hoping I don't have heart disease or cancer or a tumor or something. Then I'd have a pre-existing condition and may as well start digging my grave.
A thousand a month for individual coverage? I barely make 12,000 a year as it is! Without my savings...
...uh wait. What savings? I think Wall Street just et my savings.
Spending out of pocket for a plan costs the same whether you make 500,000 a year, 50,000 a year, or 5,000 a year. It's just that to a McCain, 12,000 is chump change.
None of these people have ever spent even a minute wondering about that weird tingling feeling in the hands you get when you bend over. They just go to a doctor. It's an alternate reality for the rest of us.