tirsdag den 19. januar 2010

Særbehandling af fagforeninger i sundhedsreform koster andre skatteydere 60 mia. USD

WSJ (16/1) har en leder om medlemmer af fagforeningers 5-årige skattefritagelse for den nye afgift på særligt dyre sygeforsikringer, som sundhedsreformen i USA indebærer. Det er ca. 13% af lønmodtagerne, der er medlemmer af fagforening, som altså får fordele til en værdi af 60 mia. USD. Andre skatteydere skal betale for denne særbehandling.

Det er ikke den eneste særbehandling i loven. WSJ foreslår, at det måske ikke havde været nødvendigt med de mange særordninger og bidrag, hvis præsident Barack Obama og demokraterne havde stræbt efter en bredt flertal bag reformen:
"The payoff shows that no one is doing a better job of rebutting the White House's technocratic cost-control claims than its own party. How exactly is the excise tax going to drive down premiums when a good part of the most expensive plans is exempted? The new union deal follows a similar one with Harry Reid that exempted the 17 states in which health costs are highest, plus longshoremen, construction workers, some farmers and sundry other liberal allies.
Amid the Beltway panic over Tuesday's special Senate election in Massachusetts and deepening public revulsion about sweetheart deals like Mr. Nelson's "Cornhusker kickback," it's more than a little surprising that the White House would be so tone-deaf to even contemplate a demand that is so contrary to basic fairness. But somehow Democrats have convinced themselves that the only tourniquet that will stop the political bleeding is to pass a bill that even President Obama admitted on Thursday is deeply unpopular.
Democrats wouldn't have to pay these partisan bribes had they chosen to write a less radical bill that could attract Republican votes. But then they would have had to pass something other than this destructive and unaffordable exercise in entitlement politics".

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