Obama's broken promises = meritorious effort to eliminate the subsidy for health care insurance

From Jacob Sullum in Reason...

The President's proposed tax on especially expensive medical benefits broke at least three of his promises. It still may have been the best aspect of [the] health care plan...

As approved by the Senate, the 40 percent excise tax would have applied to medical coverage costs above $8,500 a year for individuals and $23,000 for families. Although those cutoffs are far above average, they would have risen more slowly than insurance premiums, and the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) estimated the tax would affect nearly a quarter of Americans with employer-provided coverage by 2019.

This bracket creep was a feature, not a bug, because the aim was to reduce the incentive that encourages employers to provide tax-free medical benefits instead of higher wages. The more people are covered through work, and the more generous their coverage, the more they are insulated from the costs of their health care choices, a situation that impedes competition and inflates costs.

Barack Obama's excise tax would nibble at the edges of this problem by encouraging employers to cut back on the most expensive health plans and shift the money they save to wages....

Which brings us to those [three] broken promises. [1.] While running for president Obama repeatedly vowed not to raise taxes on families earning less than $250,000 a year....[2.] Last year Obama repeatedly assured the public that his health care plan would not affect people who are happy with their current coverage....[3.] Finally, during his campaign, Obama vowed to "change the way business is done in Washington" by eschewing special-interest lobbyists. Yet the deal he struck in January with union leaders who objected to the excise tax was a blatant payoff to supporters whose interests diverge from those of the general public....

Obama's habit of reversing himself could turn out to be a blessing.