Tax the rich for healthcare
The richest 1% of Americans have been getting richer. They can afford to foot the bill for universal healthcarePat Garofalo
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 21 July 2009
The last few decades have been very good for the richest 1% of Americans. Between 1979 and 2006, the inflation-adjusted after-tax income of the top 1% of households increased by 256%, compared to 21% for families in the middle income quintile. Meanwhile, the effective tax burden of that 1% has been falling for nearly 15 years.
With numbers like these readily available, a proposal passed by the House ways and means committee implementing a graduated surtax on the top 1% of households – those making more than $350,000 per year – in order to finance a portion of the $1tn cost of healthcare reform makes a lot of sense. However, the blowback from the proposal, from both parties in Congress, has been considerable.
Twenty-one new Democrats in the House penned a letter to speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi objecting to the tax hike. Members of the Democratic Blue Dog coalition threatened to kill the bill in the House energy and commerce committee because of the surtax. Finally, the proposal has met with stiff resistance in the Senate, with Ben Nelson calling it a "non-starter" and Chuck Grassley deeming it "non-negotiable".
As designed in the ways and means bill, the surtax would impose a 1% marginal rate on households making between $350,000 and $500,000, a 1.5% rate on those making between $500,000 and $1m, and a 5.4% rate above $1m. But the widespread criticism has led Pelosi to profess a desire to "soften" the tax, so that it applies only to families that make $1m or more. ...........(more)
The complete piece is at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2009/jul/21/healthcare-obama-tax-congress 
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