WASHINGTON, Mar 15, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) -- The Obama administration may
support a move to tax employee health benefits as a way to finance an overhaul
of the U.S. healthcare system, sources say.
Support for the idea would represent a turnabout for President Barack Obama, who
last year criticized Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain of Arizona
when he floated a similar idea, calling it "the largest middle-class tax
increase in history," The New York Times reported Sunday.
Such benefits from employers are now tax-free, regardless of how generous they
are or how much an employee earns, and any move to tax them would be opposed by
union leaders who supported Obama's presidential campaign. But now, unnamed
White House advisers told the newspaper that, while the president will not
propose changing the tax-free status of employee health benefits himself,
neither would he oppose it if Congress does so.
White House Budget Director Peter Orszag indicated at a recent congressional
hearing that taxing health benefits "most firmly should remain on the table,"
the Times said.
Obama's own idea for paying for reform -- limiting income tax deductions for the
most affluent taxpayers -- has encountered flak from congressional Democrats.
URL: www.upi.com
Copyright 2009 by United Press International