Bush's Tax Plan - Screw the Middle Class

When I read in my newspaper this morning about George Bush's plan to overhaul the federal tax system, I thought I must have missed or misunderstood something. To offset the revenue that would be lost as a result of the tax cuts, which go almost exclusively to the rich, Bush's plan includes eliminating business tax deductions for employer-provided health insurance. "I must not understand what that means," I thought. The way that sounded to me, employers currently write-off their employee health insurance premiums as a business expense and Bush wants to eliminate that write-off. But that couldn't be right, could it?

It seems a lot of other people share my interpretation and my bafflement. Just go here, and here, and here. What I don't understand is, of all the sources of revenue to tap, why this one? Bush famously does not have a plan to deal with the health care problems in this country, but he wants to pull out the economic basis of the one we've got. It may be that employers will not stop offering health insurance plans to their employees if this plan of Bush's goes through, but since we know the employers' bottom line is not going to be sacrificed, it's going to have to be employees' pay or other benefits that will have to be cut to support this. Another shift of the tax burden from the richest, who can afford it, to the middle class.

For you millions of idiots who voted for Bush (yes, you're idiots!!!!!!!)this is his expression of gratitude for your support. Don't let this bother you too much, though; he's just getting started.