You have to wonder why there are some progressive today advocating and pushing for this regressive tax on workers' health insurance.
There are progressive alternatives to this tax.
We can do what the House did and tax multimillioniares like the ones who got us into the ecomimc mess we're in. We can tax the industries that produce the junk foods that cause the childhood obesity that exacerbates the health problems which contribute to our health care system's mess. Of course, you'll probably piss off the annoying redhead the industry paid to film their ads.
Instead of doing the right thing, there are those who propose doing what the Senate bill would do and create a new tax on working Americans at a time they're suffering the fallout from a mess they didn't make.
Even worse, this tax will serve as a "Sword of Democles" that conservative opponents to progressive health care reform will hold over the heads of 186 million Americans who will be demagogued to death about the coming tax on their health insurance benefits. We will not only give them an issue to beat us over the head with, but every time an improvement to health care is proposed, they will have the expanded tax to scare millions of Americans up in opposition to it.
The fact of the matter is, this plan was as much of a bad idea back when the Heritage Foundation came up with it in 1973 as it was in 1985 when Reagan proposed it. And it's still bad now as it was last year when McCain continued the tradition of including this Republican tax on working people in his health care plan.
In 1993, President Clinton and a Democratic Congress carried water for conservative business interests by passing NAFTA. Rather than opening the doors on a new era of third way politics where corporate and progressive interests could live in some kind of creepy harmony under the progressive tent, they alienated a generation of working Americans who felt betrayed by NAFTA and helped ushered in a relatively brief but nighmarish era of conservative dominance.
NAFTA might have been passed, but an entire generation of progressive legislation was delayed until now, because of that political and policy blunder.
If you don't believe Reagan came up with this disaster of an idea, don't take my word for take. Just take a look at what the tubes recorded from back when he first proposed it:
Advisors to Reagan: Tax Health Benefits
Health Benefits Tax Politically Unfeasible
Employee Health Insurance Tax Studied
New Tax Package Likely To Meet A Quick Death
I don't know about the rest of you, but I worked last year to kill the Reagan legacy, not keep it alive.
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