With the several myths and rumors going around about the health care reform package, it is getting difficult for taxpayers to understand how the bill is going to get paid for. As such, Democratic Senator Jay Rockefeller (W.VA) has warned that another bill that is being worked on by the Senate that is full of tax hikes on the American middle class. ABCNews.com has posted this interesting article on the Senator’s warnings, which you can find a snippet of below.
It's not every day that you hear a Democratic senator charge that a fellow Democrat is proposing to raise taxes on the middle class, but that is what happened on Tuesday when Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., ripped into the health-care bill developed by Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mt., the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.
The Baucus proposal would impose, starting in 2013, a 35 percent excise tax on insurance companies for "high-cost plans" -- defined as those above $8,000 for individuals and $21,000 for family plans.
Health economists believe a tax on high-priced benefits could help slow the growth of health costs by making consumers more sensitive to prices.
The tax contemplated by Baucus is also a big revenue raiser. It is expected to raise $200 billion, money that Baucus is hoping to use to pay for subsidies for the uninsured.
Given how much money this kind of tax can raise, Rockefeller says he understands why it is "tempting."