Cadillac Tax Will Hurt Many

President Barrack Obama's insistence on a so-called "Cadillac Tax," is a horrible idea.

The "Cadillac Tax" is a plan to tax employer sponsored, high-end health care plans to help pay for supposed health care reform. Cadillac plans, according to the Senate Health Care Reform proposal, are those that have annual costs of $8,500 for individuals or $23,000 for families.[1] The tax on the plans would be 40%.

The President strongly believes that this tax would help pay for health care reform, claiming that wealthy executives who have such plans would have to pay. The problem with this thinking is that the plan would also hurt many middle class and working class workers with good health insurance plans.

The middle class and the working class are consistently disappearing under more than two decades of the right-wing thinking that is "trickle down economics."

Labor Unions are among the furious, claiming that 1 in 4 workers are going to be affected by the tax.[2] During the 2008 Presidential Campaign, they shifted their support from Senator John McCain when he wanted such a tax.

In addition to feeling misled, the unions are very concerned for their workers. They know that such a tax will understandably prompt employers to look for cheaper and, likely, lesser plans.

Most people who are working and have good plans that are at or near the "Cadillac" level will tell you that they are barely holding on to their health insurance. In fact, many rank-and-file workers have passed on raises or have accepted reduced wages to keep a good health insurance plan.

Such an oppressive tax seems to run counter with the Obama administration's push for health care reform-the idea of which was to help working people and the disappearing middle class.

This sort of short-sightedness is nothing new in federal government. Recently, the senate dropped a proposed "Botax," a tax on out-of-pocket cosmetic procedures. The tax would have raised $5.8 billion over a decade for health care reform costs.

The senate instead opted to tax the tanning bed industry, which will bring in only bring in $2.5 billion over a decade for health care reform costs.

Instead, they settled for $3.3 billion dollars less.

What were they thinking? They weren't. They were told what to think by the all-powerful medical lobbyists, who have far more money and influence than the tanning industry.

Health Care Reform, if passed, will take several years to come to fruition. In the interim, the Cadillac Tax will wreak havoc on many working class people.

That is because the working class people, other than the Unions, have no lobbying influence and are easier to steamroll over.

If life were really fair there would be a greed tax on the extravagant Wall Street bonus packages that have grotesquely shifted the wealth of this country like a broken hind leg on a dog.

[1] Wolferton, Joseph. "Cadillac Tax: Healthy, Wealthy and Wise?" New American, December 28, 2009.

[2] Greenhouse, Steven. "Unions Rally to Oppose Cadillac Benefits Tax" New York Times, January, 9, 2010.