Back during the campaign John McCain talked about taxing health care benefits provided by employers. I am not in favor of taxing benefits such as health care that employers provide and think it is counter productive. Taxing it would make employers less inclined to provide it. The left was not impressed with it either and Obama scoffed at the idea and called it a large increase on the middle class. Obama failed to mention that McCain intended to offset the tax with a tax credit for their health care.
The International Herald Tribune is reporting this regarding Obama’s position at the time:
In television advertisements last fall, Mr. Obama criticized his Republican rival for the presidency, Senator John McCain of Arizona, for proposing to tax all employer-provided health benefits. The benefits have long been tax-free, regardless of how generous they are or how much an employee earns. The advertisements did not point out that Mr. McCain, in exchange, wanted to give all families a tax credit to subsidize the purchase of coverage.
The article goes on to state that Obama might regret his position if he were to win and now it appears that their concern had merit. Barack Obama is open to taxing the health care benefits that employers provide as a way to obtain money to pay for those who do not have health care. Once again, this rookie is working to require those of us who pay our bills to pay the bills of others. We have to pay for their houses so why not their health care?
Obama, at the time of the campaign, called McCain’s proposal the the largest tax increase on the middle class in history but now it looks as if he is open to imposing the largest tax increase on the middle class in history. Once again we see that Obama is not doing what he promised. He is now aligning himself with the policy of a rival, a policy he clearly denounced.
Will the media pick this up and run with it? Will they denounce this and scream about how unfair it is? Will they attack Obama like they went after McCain?
Of course not and his toadies, some of whom comment here, will excuse this and say it is for the good of the nation. They will not look at it as a flip-flop, or worse a lie, but will instead discuss how much this guy cares for people.
I think Obama had these kinds of plans in mind when he was debating McCain. Obama wants to have all health care provided by the government and the way to do that is to destroy the private sector and force employers to abandon health care benefits for employees. If he intended to do this all along then he was lying back then.
One thing is certain, he described it as the largest tax increase on the middle class which means he is not being truthful when he says he will cut taxes for 95% of the people.
This is just another example of spreading the wealth. It is also another example of Obama not being able to do what he said or to stand up for what he said were his beliefs. He is a typical politician and this is not change we can believe in.
They are painting Republicans as the party of NO but it looks like Obama is the leader with NO (scruples, truth, or convictions).
I hope those of you who voted for this guy are learning something though I seriously doubt that you can teach them much. The Kool Aid is very strong.
Also:
NYT
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