"Obama To Meet With Union Leaders To Discuss Cadillac Tax"

[Clio the Leo]

Obama To Meet With Union Leaders To Discuss Cadillac Tax
Sam Stein, Updated: 01- 7-10 05:25 PM

President Barack Obama is planning to meet with union leaders in the next few days in order to address their opposition to a proposed tax on high-cost health care plans, multiple sources tell the Huffington Post.

The administration recently indicated that it supports including a tax on so-called Cadillac health care insurance plans as part of final health care negotiations between the House and the Senate. The proposal, while believed to be extremely important in getting health care costs under control, is deeply unpopular in the labor community. Many union members are enrolled under those plans -- having given up salary increases to get the additional health care benefits. Now, they stand to have those benefits taxed.

Hoping to get the excise tax dropped in negotiations, several unions launched a public campaign against the proposal. Included in the effort were implicit vows to not support (though also not oppose) the final bill if the tax is included.

In light of the discontent, the White House reached out to labor leaders, asking to set up a meeting to go over some of the policy and political concerns.

"The president is calling us in to discuss some of the policy differences regarding the excise tax," said a union official. "It should be happening in the next couple of days."

The meeting should be a joint gathering with all the labor leaders and not individual sessions. The list of attendees is not yet final. But leaders of several other major national branches are expected to be there, including AFL-CIO, SEIU, CWA and AFSCME.

It was stressed that the gathering would not be an attempt by the administration to strong-arm unions into dropping their objections, but rather an opportunity to hash out some of the disagreements that they have with the proposal.

The White House did not return a request for comment.

UPDATE: An additional labor source tells the Huffington Post that the meeting will take place on Monday.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/07/obama-to-meet-with-union_n_415088.html

Again, the man cut his political teeth with Union members and LONG before most of us knew about Barack Obama, he was working to improve the lives of IL union members. He KNOWS that they are often the backbone of political organizing among the Democratic party throughout the country. Alienating them would be political suicide. So I find it HARD to believe that he's now pushing something that will screw them over ... add to this the fact that the WH has now initiated a meeting with labor leaders, it makes the whole meme that insurance companies are pushing seem laughable.

[Hello_Kitty]

1. So you're accusing unions of being duped by insurance companies now?

Really? That's the meme you're going with?

[Clio the Leo]

4. Of course not. Do you have any thoughts on this?

http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/healthcare/74835-why-this-progressive-is-sticking-by-the-tax-on-insurers-sen-john-kerry

[Hello_Kitty]

5. The EPI has debunked the higher wages claim

http://epi.3cdn.net/f121df10fab53d2b16_3nm6bhd7e.pdf

That's a big part of the faulty premise the argument for this excise tax rests upon. They are claiming they will raise billions in tax revenues from higher wages when there's no basis for it. It disappoints me to see someone as smart as John Kerry falling for this.

[Name removed]

12. Deleted message

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[inna]

2. "the whole meme that insurance companies are pushing" -

What "meme" are you referring to?

[hvn_nbr_2]

9. I didn't understand what that statement was trying to say either. nt

[AllyCat]

3. Now? He's decided NOW to meet with Unions?

Why does he even care at this point? Why does it matter? The Congress will push this thing through no matter what we think.

[dkf]

7. His involvement is to stuff it down all our throats

Didn't need to do that til the end. Well he will get his legislative victory. That is the only goal after all.

[Cha]

22. More stupid clueless

dissing.

[dionysus]

29. i've never seen such a pack of bitter, bitter people in my life...

[tridim]

8. Read the last paragraph of the post.

[Cha]

23. The Clueless Dissers don't care what it says.. but I do..

"Again, the man cut his political teeth with Union members and LONG before most of us knew about Barack Obama, he was working to improve the lives of IL union members. He KNOWS that they are often the backbone of political organizing among the Democratic party throughout the country. Alienating them would be political suicide. So I find it HARD to believe that he's now pushing something that will screw them over ... add to this the fact that the WH has now initiated a meeting with labor leaders, it makes the whole meme that insurance companies are pushing seem laughable."

[Cha]

21. You don't know all what President Obama has

been doing for this..just more clueless dissing from the uniformed.

[jenmito]

6. K&R. Hopefully it WILL be worked out. n/t

[brentspeak]

10. All along, the only things Obama pushed for re. HCR was screwing the average American n/t

[Mass]

11. There are very serious issues about the excise tax, and I would hope that Obama will listen and push

the Senate to fix them, if this is the solution that will be adopted. (starting by indexing the threshold on healthcare inflation, not inflation, taking into account regional cost of living and company size).

[ProSense]

13. The claim that moving away from high-cost plans means fewer benefits is false

here

[Hello_Kitty]

14. The claim that taxing health plans will lead to higher wages is laughable.

[ProSense]

20. No, it's not. n/t

[shadesofgray]

15. I don't find it hard to believe at all. He thinks he can steamroll them the

same way he steamrolled Nancy.

I hope they tell him to piss up a rope.

[IndianaGreen]

16. The reaction of union families to this travesty is what will count!

This is nothing more than a middle class tax increase at a time of economic dislocation.

[Ildem09]

18. i agree

i know several union folks in Terre Haute that won't be so motivated to keep Indiana in the Blue Column in 2012

[kelly1mm]

17. I already told my union that I will exercise my "Beck Rights" if they

support one politician that supports this bill if it contains the Cadillac tax provision and will urge others to do the same.

[Cha]

19. Your "beck rights"? What is that?

[kelly1mm]

25. "Beck Rights" are the ability of union members to get a refund of

the portion of their union dues that go to political campaign contributions. It stems from the USSC case Communication Workers v. Beck.

[LiberalFighter]

26. There are unions that do not make political contributions to candidates

via their treasury. Rather, they rely on voluntary contributions to a PAC.

And using your "Beck Rights" won't necessarily make an impact. Rather than doing that it would probably be more effective to attend and participate in meetings for your local union and AFL-CIO Central Labor Council. If you have a standing committee with the purpose of educating members about legislation in both the local and national level it would provide you with the chance to impact decisions.

[backscatter712]

24. People catastrophize here on DU, but I don't think the Cadillac tax will be that bad.

Personally, I'd put a few exemptions or breaks into it - raise the threshold where the tax kicks in for older folks, say 50+, because they're gonna be paying more for their insurance under the current legislation.

I'd also cut a break for collectively-negotiated health care plans, or IOW, union plans specifically because unions have negotiated better health care for their members in lieu of higher wages. A union exemption to the Cadillac tax might put an end to this particular fight.

This is already in the Senate bill, IIRC, but I'd also make sure the final legislation has exemptions for workers in high-risk professions, like longshoremen, lumberjacks, crab fishermen...

[karynnj]

30. There already are higher limits for people over 55 and in high risk professions

[ima_sinnic]

27. I envy union members that at least he appears to want to meet with them, but

I remember what happened after he "met with" proponents of single-payer. As I recall, it was a token "feel good" kind of thing that went absolutely nowhere, even though the vast majority of the country want it. It didn't even lead to inclusion of a "public option" in the final bill.

I'd be wary of anything he says now, because he's shown he doesn't mind lying and saying what people want to hear, insincerely.

[FrenchieCat]

28. Good. Never too late, considering the bill is still being tinkered with.