
by: Bill Dupray posted: 2010-01-14 12:18:00
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It appears, according to Congress Daily, that the unions have secured a deal to exempt them from the Cadillac tax on expensive health insurance policies.
We saw this coming as far back as June of last year, and dragged it out again on Monday as the most likely thing to break the logjam over the financing in the two health care bills.
The NRO Editors shredded the idea this morning.
Even after all the unsavory bargains and rotten deals that have characterized the rush to get this thing passed (the “Louisiana Purchase,” the “Cornhusker Kickback,” etc.) the “Labor Loophole” surely takes the prize. A few Democrats in the Senate already tried this trick and were laughed out of the smoke-filled room, so nakedly obvious was the special-interest favoritism at work. That the Democratic party is seriously reconsidering this deal is a sign of how desperate it has become to pass a bill — any bill — that shoves the federal foot through the waiting-room door.
The money quote.
The Democrats are fighting a losing battle: Every time they make a corrupt compromise to buy votes, a disgusted public likes the bill a little less, which drives down its popularity in the polls, which increases the number of votes the Democrats have to buy. As Ramesh Ponnuru and Yuval Levin noted in the latest issue of National Review, the end product of this process will present a big red target for Republicans to shoot at all year. The Labor Loophole would make that target even bigger.
The Dems must be out of their gourds. How do you defend a 40% tax on the health plan of a non-union worker at a manufacturing plant and no tax whatsoever on the union guy with the same plan across the hall?
Tags: health care, Unions, Taxes,
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Ranking Republican Paul Ryan responds to an NRO query about the news this morning: “The Congressional Budget Office has confirmed that there is currently no official cost estimate. Yet House Democrats are touting to the press — and spinning for partisan gain — numbers that have not been released and are impossible to confirm.Boy, a final official number that came in over a trillion bucks would really bite them in the a**.
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The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely Arizona GOP Primary voters shows McCain ahead 48% to 41%. Three percent (3%) favor another candidate, and eight percent (8%) are undecided. Following the announcement that Sarah Palin would campaign for his reelection, McCain opened up a 53% to 31% lead over Hayworth in January. The two men were in a near tie in November.By my math, McCain's lead shrunk from 21 to 7 in two months. Hmmm.
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[House] leaders are mulling a rule that would allow the chamber to "deem" the Senate's version of health legislation as passed, without actually having to vote on it. Imagine how useful this trick would be in daily life. You could make unpopular decisions without actually appearing to make them. That excruciating Thanksgiving dinner at your brother-in-law's? You "deemed" that you attended. . . . It's understandable that some House Democrats wouldn't want to cast a direct vote on the Senate bill . . . before moving to change it. But a procedure this transparently gimmicky just adds to the cynicism surrounding the bill and opens it up to unnecessary court challenges.
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In hypothetical match ups with Sen. Barbara Boxer (D) in the general election, Campbell leads Boxer, 44% to 43%, while Boxer leads Fiorina, 45% to 44%, and tops DeVore, 45% to 41%. Both findings are within the survey's margin of error.
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The looming Congressional showdown over health care reform has set Washington’s legal war rooms whirring in preparation for court battles over any health legislation that moves towards President Barack Obama’s desk. Republican lawyers say they’re conducting research and drafting arguments for lawsuits that could be filed within days or weeks, particularly if House leaders decide to go forward with a “deem & pass” rule that would not permit a freestanding vote on the Senate-passed health care reform bill.
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Democrats might like to think that health care reform is all but a done deal if it clears the House, but the Senate is where Republicans have been plotting for months to sentence it to a painful procedural death. Republican aides have been mining the Senate’s arcane parliamentary rules for an attack that aims at striking elements both broad and narrow from the bill, weakening the measure and ultimately defeating it. Their goal is to force changes that leave Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) without 51 votes to pass it, or at the very least, that drive it back to the House for a second vote that drags out the process and saps Democratic resolve.
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