A headline in today’s Los Angeles Times (11/20/09): “Democrats Risk Taxing the Wealthy for Healthcare.”
The paper explains:
Embracing the progressive–and sometimes politically risky–principle that the cost of carrying out public policies should fall to the well-off more than the disadvantaged, both the House and Senate bills would place new taxes on the wealthy to help pay for expanded insurance coverage.
Since mostly people aren’t “well-off,” and raising taxes on the wealthy tends to be rather popular with most people, what exactly is the political risk here? Surely the article will tell us. Oh, here it is:
In a recent Associated Press poll, 57 percent of those surveyed favored taxing people who earn more than $250,000 a year to pay for the healthcare overhaul. Of a variety of financing options tested in the survey, that tax was the only idea supported by a majority.
In other words, the not-very-risky idea of raising taxes on the wealthy.
Not to worry. The Teabaggers are on the job!