Obama on health care tax: good answer, bad politics, questionable motives

Some AP writers, combining to write about Obama's willingness to tax health care benefits, in the C-J...

This will prove to be controversial politically-- although it may just be floating this as an extreme position or a trial balloon. Interestingly, organized labor cartels/unions are opposed, chiefly because they receive such "healthy" benefits.

And I'm not sure about Obama's motives. His motives could range from the opportunity to raise revenues to fund his gargantuan spending and forsake some of his amazing debt. Or it could be to "encourage" people to move from private insurance to Obama-care.

But this would actually be a huge step forward if it was revenue-neutral. Or given that one will raise taxes, this would be the first way to do it.

It's a longer story that I've recounted often. But the subsidization of health care insurance-- as a non-taxed form of compensation-- turns out to be at the heart of our health care cost and insurance problems.
With lawmakers trying to crunch the numbers on a $1 trillion health care overhaul, President Barack Obama is leaving the door open to a new tax on employer-provided health care benefits.

Senior senators said Wednesday the benefits tax could be essential for the complex plan to be fully financed....

Obama, who campaigned against the tax when he ran for president, drew a quick rebuff from organized labor....Gerald W. McEntee, president of the 1.6 million-member American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, said in an interview that union leaders believe Obama is "a person of his word." He was referring to Obama's opposition to taxing those benefits during last year's campaign. "They're not going to tolerate that," McEntee said of workers' views of that proposal.