Saw this one coming: Unions to receive exemption from ‘Cadillac tax’

Posted by Bill Dupray on Jan 14 2010 Filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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?

Share

Save

Related Posts

1. Breaking the health care logjam: Will unions be exempted from the Cadillac tax?
2. MSM trying to give unions credit for Lincoln’s coming loss; nice try
3. ‘Cadillac Tax’ in Health Plan Would Hit Middle Class Hard
4. Kerry kneepads unions; AFL-CIO speaks sphincterly
5. 30 Bipartisan Cosponsors: Fort Hood Casualties to Receive Combatant Status under new House legislation

Short URL: http://libertypundits.net/?p=10198