House leaders have proposed financing about half the cost of a health care reform bill with a surtax on wealthy people–and something like that might fly in the lower chamber. But in the Senate? Here’s Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, now trying to figure out how to pay for it’s own reform legislation.
Translated, once again, from Grassley’s famous twitterese, that reads: “Charles Rangel [chairman of the House Ways and Means committee, who first announced the tax proposal] the wealthy one percent make 27 percent of total income and pay 40 percent of collected income tax. You suggest a five percent health care surtax. How much will the beleaguered wealthy have to pay to satisfy you? Let’s talk.”
Grassley’s committee was expected to propose taxing employer-provided health benefits benefits to finance a health care system overhaul, but that idea seems to have been put on ice, leaving the taxation averse panel without a funding mechanism for their incomplete bill. The House’s bill will be unveiled today.