Rich Democrats Freak on Obama Health Care Plan

Why should anyone be surprised at this reaction?? Just a matter of time… the mid-term elections will prove to be the flash back to this wham bam thank you mama approach of the Obama / Pelosi team.  Why the hurry to slam dunk a plan that no one has figured out yet? That’s why Obama is trying to ram rod a health care bill through that no one has even had time to understand. His greatest fear is that moderate Democrats will be pushing back on his socialist agenda…

The following story is just the tip of the iceberg:

A group of Democrats elected in recent years from some of the country’s richest congressional districts have emerged as a stumbling block to raising taxes on the wealthy to pay for President Barack Obama’s ambitious health-care overhaul just as the plan has begun to meet increasing resistance over its cost.

Friday, two freshmen representatives — Dina Titus, from suburban Las Vegas, and Colorado’s Jared Polis, representing Boulder, Vail and some of the tonier suburbs of Denver — joined Republicans to vote against Mr. Obama’s top-priority health-care overhaul when it faced a vote in their House Education and Labor Committee. One reason was a one-percentage point-surtax on couples earning between $350,000 and $500,000 — gradually increasing to 5.4 percentage points on earnings more than $1 million — to pay for it.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, left, during a mock swearing in early this year for Rep. Gerald Connolly (D.,Va.), as family and friends look on. Mr. Connolly is one of the freshmen Democrats pleading against sharp tax increases.

The bill passed the committee anyway, but if the number of Democratic defectors grows it could pose a serious obstacle to the president.

Also on Friday a busload of freshmen Democrats went to the White House to plead their case against sharp tax increases with the president and his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel. The organizer was Rep. Gerald Connolly, the president of the freshman class whose Northern Virginia district is the richest in the U.S. as measured by median household income.

“There could come a time,” said Rep. Michael McMahon, a freshman Democrat from New York City’s borough of Staten Island, when Democrats are in open rebellion. “We will certainly see in the next few weeks where we are going.”

Election gains in some of these affluent regions have helped give Democrats big majorities in the House and Senate. Of the 25 richest districts, 14 are represented by Democrats, according to Congressional Quarterly. In 1995, Democrats represented just five of those districts.
Journal Community

Recently elected Democrats from higher-income areas also have been cautious about legislation that would make it easier for labor unions to organize, and about legislation imposing tough new rules on banks. Republicans have savaged the new Democrats for supporting legislation to stem global warming by capping greenhouse-gas emissions, then forcing polluters to purchase and trade emissions credits — a “cap and tax,” the GOP says.

But planned tax increases are likely the source of the toughest intra-Democratic tensions. The president wants to allow George W. Bush’s income-tax cuts to expire in 2011 for families earning at least $250,000 and to stop the estate tax from being repealed next year. Mr. Obama also campaigned on putting an additional payroll tax of two to four percentage points on incomes above $250,000 to help put Social Security back on solid footing. As the president confronts a surging budget deficit and presses his ambitious agenda, all those tax increases may be necessary to make ends meet.

All together, Democratic plans could push the top tax rate to 47%, the highest level since the tax code was rewritten in 1986. — John Weisman / WSJ

[0 rating, 2 votes]

Sphere: Related Content

You can follow any discussion by checking the notification box below the comment area or via our RSS 2.0 comment feed. -- ZZ N&S Staff