Reid eyeing 0.4%-0.5% Medicare payroll tax hike for health care reform

Posted Nov 12th 2009 5:30PM by Joseph Lazzaro
Filed under: Politics

U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nevada and Senate Majority Leader, is weighing increasing the Medicare payroll tax by 0.4 to 0.5 percentage point, as a way to help fund universal health care, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday (subscription required.)

The current employee share of the Medicare tax is 1.45%. Reid's proposal would apply to only those earning more than $250,000 per year, which would conform to President Obama's campaign promise to not raise taxes on individuals earning under $250,000 per year, CNN.com reported Thursday.

President Obama has also repeatedly said he will not sign a health care reform bill that increases the budget deficit.

Fiscal Analysis: A small increase in the Medicare tax on upper-income Americans -- less than 1 penny per dollar -- is a credible way to plug any gap created by health care reform legislation, but, like Sen. Reid, let's await the Congressional Budget Office's revised budget impact statement for the House bill, before concluding that the additional revenue is needed. The House bill's surtax on upper-income Americans (over $500,000 for individuals, $1 million for couples) has little support in the Senate.

Tags: Harry Reid, health care, health care reform, medicare, payroll tax, PayrollTax

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

11-13-2009 @ 1:31PM

gandgcarpentry said...

I have had enough of paying for worthless, pieces of sh.. that provide NOTHING to the economu but take EVERYTHING...how bout get a f.ing job and pay for health insurance urself..ohhhh, thats right you cant afford while your talking on your cell phone waiting in line at the welfare office..so you sell your food stamps for crack and cigarettes - great job reid keep providing them crack heads money..how bout Mr Reid you pay for your own health insurance too...oh and paying some federal taxes yourself