To help pay for its expensive and painfully complex health care bill, Congress plans on burdening families and small businesses earning over $350,000 with a surtax. Ill-conceived “soak the rich” plans devised by Congress tend to inspire a yawn, a sigh, or applause from the vast majority of citizens who don’t have to actually pay the lopsided amount of taxes that the “rich” pay. Well, as it turns out, more and more of us might actually be “rich” enough to have to chip in to help fund government-run health insurance …
Rep. Charlie Rangel of New York and other House Democrats propose to pay for their $1.3 trillion bill to create government-run health care with a 5.4 percent surtax on 2.04 million high-income Americans — about half of them small business owners. Americans would face European-style taxes, paying top rates that – combined with local and state taxes – exceed those of economic competitors such as Germany and Japan. Taxpayers in Italy, Spain, and even France pay lower rates. And that’s not all: President Obama would have the power to increase …
The recent letter to Congressman Rangel from the AMA in appreciation and support for H.R. 3200, the “America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009” is disconcerting and fails to accurately represent the concerns of many of America’s physicians, myself included. The AMA has failed to clearly discuss the significant trade-offs that private practice physicians and their patients will face if this legislation is rushed through congress. First of all, if the legislation is passed along with the option of a public plan that competes with private plans, physicians will bear …
House Ways and Means Chairman Charlie Rangel announced that a surtax on individuals and families above a certain income level would be used to pay for health care reform. The surtax is 1% for joint filers over $350,000, 1.5% for joint filers over $500,000 and 5.4% for joint filers with over $1,000,000 in adjusted gross income ($280,000, $400,000, $800,000 for individuals respectively). The surtax would be increased if large cuts in health care do not materialize. The surtax is on adjusted gross income, so the surtax is applied before any …
Earlier today, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charlie Rangel (D-NY), told reporters that the tax cut provisions in the economic stimulus plan will be cut, without offering further details. You may remember that earlier in 2008, Chairman Rangel was investigated for violating a number of House ethics rules, which led to three separate investigations. During this time period, he admitted that he failed to report at least $75, 000 of income made off of his beachside condo in Punta Cana. He is also currently under investigation for failing to …
