Taxing Health Benefits in the Senate

Gerald W. McEntee, president of the 1.6 million-member American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, said in an interview that union leaders believe Obama is ''a person of his word.'' He was referring to Obama's opposition to taxing those benefits during last year's campaign. "'They're not going to tolerate that,'' McEntee said of workers' views of that proposal.

There is little chance any health care bill comes out of the Senate with taxes on health care benefits. How the President is going to get this through Big Labor is the political question of the Summer. yes he will be mocked for attacking McCain over the issue, but if his base can swallow a 106 billion war bill and the adoption of so many Bush policies he will get away with it. This on the other end is an action that will hit his supporters right in their benefits, benefits Unions fought years to get.

“The Congressional Budget Office now tells us we have options that would enable us to write a $1 trillion bill, fully paid for,” Mr. Baucus said.

The bill is likely to include a new tax on some employer-provided health benefits and a requirement for employers to help pay the cost of health insurance for some of their low-income workers — those who enroll in Medicaid or get federal subsidies to help them buy insurance on their own. The third major source of financing is cutbacks in Medicare payments to hospitals and many other health care providers.

Senator Kent Conrad, Democrat of North Dakota, said the overall cost of the bill had been reduced mainly by limiting eligibility for the federal subsidies and reducing their value. The subsidies would originally have been available to people with incomes up to 400 percent of the poverty level ($88,200 for a family of four). Democrats have lowered the ceiling to 300 percent of the poverty level ($66,150 for a family of four).

A bipartisan group of seven senators, including Mr. Baucus and Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the senior Republican on the Finance Committee, had been hoping to announce a deal on Thursday. With no agreement, they issued a statement in which they promised to keep working.“Over the past several months, we’ve made progress toward workable solutions,” the group said. “We are committed to continuing our work toward a bipartisan bill that will lower costs and ensure quality, affordable care for every American.”

The statement was a status report but also a political document, meant to buck up the spirits of advocates of sweeping health care legislation, who insist that public opinion is on their side, despite setbacks on Capitol Hill.

The cuts in Medicare are also questionable at best, there comes a point where seeing patients costs doctors and hospitals money, this is not sustainable. People need to understand these brutal battles have occurred simply over the proposals, wait till they try to pass them into law.