Shocker: Democrats Exempt Union Workers From Tax On Health Care Benefits
Recently Democrats have been talking about taxing health care benefits as a way to pay for their plans for government health care. And while that wasn’t a bad idea when McCain proposed it as a way to push people off of employer health care plans and on to self-pay plans like health savings account, as a way to both fund government health care plans and encourage dependency on them it stinks.
But surprise, surprise if the Democrats get their way not all Americans would have their health benefits taxed. Union workers would be exempted.
Union members and their families who receive healthcare benefits paid for by their employers would be exempted from a new tax on healthcare under one option being proposed by Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mt), according to a report by the Fox Business Channel’s Peter Barnes.
Baucus’s plan would tax health care benefits to raise from $161.9 billion to $418 billion over ten years to fund the nationalized “government provider” of health care benefits President Obama and Democrats want. Peter Barnes told me, “There would be preferential treatment for unions” under one version of the Baucus proposal.
As shown on page 3 of the Baucus outline published by Fox News under two of Baucus’ four options, healthcare benefits provided under collective bargaining agreements dated on or before January 1, 2013 would be exempt from the tax.
So once again – just like with the auto bailouts – Democrats put the interests of their union political allies ahead of the rest of Americans.
Not that passing a government health care plan is in anyone’s best interest in this country. But if we’re going to have it, shouldn’t we all have to pay for it?
