Tax the Middle Class, Save the Rich -- the DEMOCRAT SENATE Plan in the Health Care Bill

"Though the American left and right don't agree on much” Columnist Frank Rich over the weekend, "they are both now coalescing around the suspicion that Obama's brilliant presidential campaign was as hollow as Tiger's public image."

Hooray for Frank Rich's frankness! I am sorry to say I am one of those with such a suspicion. Where is the Barack Obama we all voted for? Where is the fire in his belly for defending the middle class? He is not the same man as he was last fall.

Now, using the selective memory that old fashioned politicians have always used ( we thought he was different), Mr. Obama says that 95 per cent of what he wanted is in the Senate Bill.

Really, Mister President? Are you sure you want to make such a claim when we have your speeches and campaign material all over the internet still?

Well, if you insist on saying such a thing, Mr. Obama, people will surely say things about you.

Where is Representative Joe Wilson when you need him? Some folks like him might say “You Lie!”, but I will be generous and just say, “Your memory is not precise, sir.”

EzrA Klein of the Washington Post and others have talks of Obama's promises. A look at campaign promises shows that these are things on health care that Obama promised, but failed to deliver:

1. Public option
2. No individual mandate
3. Drug re-importation
4. Government coverage of catastrophic costs
5. Employer mandate
6. National, rather than state level, exchanges

And then this horrific bill adds two things that Obama didn’t promise but are in the bill (and note, I agree the delivery system reforms are great improvements, but the case for the excise tax is a big attack on the unions and the middle class that supported Obama in the campaign).

1. Excise tax
2. Delivery system reforms

Yes, the Senate Bill is LOADED with taxes, bright shiny new taxes for many people. The Senate bill calls for a nearly $70 billion tax over 10 years on insurance companies, plus a $2 billion-a-year tax on medical devices. Billions of dollars are also meant to be raised from added taxes and fees on wealthier seniors, higher-end insurance plans and tanning salons.

Companies of all sizes have been increasingly burdened by health-care costs, which topped $400 billion in 2007, according to data from the Employee Benefit Research Institute. Unrestrained, that figure is expected to double by 2017. About 70% of workers receive health insurance through their employers.

Groups representing smaller businesses say the threat of increased taxes and premiums could outweigh provisions intended to limit the impact on small employers. The Senate bill "will not only fail to reduce and control the constantly climbing health-care costs small-business owners face, but it will result in new and greater costs on their business," said Dan Danner, head of the National Federation of Independent Business.

And the excise tax will crush workers and other folks who are on employee group insurance plans. Unions ranging from the powerful AFL-CIO to the National Education Association to the Communications Workers of America are decrying the provision in the Senate health package that would impose a 40 percent "excise tax" on insurance companies for "Cadillac plans" with high-cost premiums.

The unions claim the tax will end up hitting the middle class hard and say Congress should instead use the House-passed idea of simply increasing income taxes on wealthy individuals.The unions are correct. It is a terrible situation. And the Democrats are doing all of this, not the Republicans!

"The health plan excise tax will not let families keep the good health plans they have now," CWA President Larry Cohen said in a statement Tuesday. His group argues that insurance companies will end up reducing benefits to avoid the tax.

Thanks Mister Obama. You are allowing the biting of the hands that pulled the levers for you. And with this monstrous bill you are supporting, you are sealing a defeat for Democrats in 2010, not to mention 2012.