It's bad enough we have to put up with endless disinformation coming from outlets like Faux News, but it is really too much when it comes from supposedly "unbiased" news sources like NBC's "Meet the Press."
On Sunday's program, Gregory falsely claimed that the new surtax on Medicare would be felt by "anyone who gets a paycheck in this country."
The reality is that only individuals making more than $200,000/year will see this charge.
Is it too much to ask that someone in Gregory's position do a little research before mouthing off about something he clearly knows nothing about? Or does he know better and is simply a water carrier for the conservatives, passing along false information to buttress the critics' arguments against the law?
Here's how Media Matters describes it:
Gregory's claim failed to recognize that both of the healthcare law's Medicare tax increases affect only the wealthiest of Americans. A 0.9 percent Medicare payroll tax increase will apply to individual earners whose annual income exceeds $200,000 or households earning more than $250,000 - a group representing only 4.2 percent of taxpayers. An additional 3.8 percent tax will apply to the investment income of some Americans. As Forbes noted, "for individuals who have little or no net investment income, their 3.8% Medicare Surtax will be minimal if not zero."
According to the White House, the changes are designed to increase fairness in a system that is highly regressive. Currently, Americans with substantial unearned income do not pay into the Medicare Hospital Insurance (HI) trust fund as workers do, and payroll tax caps decrease the percentage that high-earners contribute.