THE HILL
 
comment
Print

Seniors exempted from new healthcare taxes

By Jeffrey Young - 09/30/09 03:49 PM ET

Senior citizens would not be subjected to new taxes on their medical amendments under an amendment adopted by the Senate Finance Committee Wednesday, thanks to Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.).

Under current law, anyone who itemizes their taxes can deduct medical expenses that exceed 7.5 percent of their adjusted gross income in a year. The healthcare reform bill pending in the committee, which was written by Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), would raise that threshold to 10 percent, thus raising $21.7 billion in new tax revenue.

Nelson argued that seniors are a vulnerable population that faces high healthcare expenses in spite of their Medicare benefits and should be able to continuing deducting expenses at the lower threshold. "We should not raise taxes on the seniors to pay for health reform," Nelson said.

Baucus endorsed the change to his bill. "This Nelson amendment makes good sense," Baucus said. As written, the amendment would only allow seniors to deduct medical expense at the lower level for four years but Baucus said that would change. "By the time we get to the floor, this is going to be permanent," he said of Nelson's amendment.

The committee adopted Nelson's amendment 14 to 9, with Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe (Maine) joining Democrats on the vote.

To cover the lost revenue from excluding those seniors' expenses from taxation, Nelson proposed not allowing employers to claim a business-expense tax deduction for the tax penalty they would pay if they do not offer insurance to their workers.

Republicans on the panel attacked the idea of raising the deductibilty threshold to 10 percent for anyone. "I think this is the worst idea in an ocean of bad ideas," Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said. Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) offered an amendment to leave the current law in place but the committee rejected it on the same 14 to 9 vote, as Snowe again voted with the Democrats.


Source:
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/60999-seniors-exempted-from-new-healthcare-taxes
Blog Briefing Room Twitter - Click to follow
bloglogo

More Briefing Room »

More Congress Blog »

More Pundits Blog »

More Twitter Room »

More Hillicon Valley »

More E2-Wire (Energy) »

More Ballot Box »

More On The Money »

More Healthwatch »

More Floor Action »

More Transportation »

More DEFCON Hill »

Briefing Room Blog Roll

The Hill
ABC News: The Note
AMERICAblog
Barack Obama
Beat The Press
Bill Press
BuzzFlash
Capitol Briefing
Capitol Games
The Caucus (NYT)
Clive Crook
Comments From Left Field
CNN Political Ticker
The Corner (NRO)
Crooks and Liars
The Daily Beast
Daily Caller
Daily Kos
DCCC: The Stakeholder
DNC: Kicking Ass
DSCC: From The Roots
Drudge Report
Eschaton
Extreme Mortman
Ezra Klein
firedoglake
FishbowlDC
The Fix (WashPost)
The Foundry
Gateway Pundit
Glenn Greenwald
Hendrik Hertzberg
Hillary Clinton
Hot Air
Hotline on Call
Huffington Post
Human Events
Instapundit
James Fallows
John McCain
Judicial Watch: Corruption Chronicles
Kaus Files
Left Coaster
Lefty Blogs
Lucianne
Majority AP
Marc Ambinder
Matt Lewis
Matthew Yglesias
Megan McArdle
Michelle Malkin
Minority Report
The Moderate Voice
MSNBC First Read
MyDD
The Nation
National Review
The New Republic
NewsBusters
Newsmax
The NRCC Blog
NRSC Blog
Open Left
Page (Mark Halperin)
The Plank (TNR)
Political Animal
Political Wire
Politicker
Politico's Ben Smith
Politico's Jonathan Martin
Politico's The Crypt
Power Line
Reason
RedState
Right Wing News
RNC Blog
Ross Douthat
Rush Limbaugh
SCOTUSblog
Senate Guru
The Stump (TNR)
The Swamp (Tribune)
Swampland
Swing State Project
Talk Left
TalkingPointsMemo
TAPPED
Tech Policy Summit
techPresident
TechRepublican
The Right Angle
Think Progress
Top of the Ticket (LA Times)
Townhall
TPMCafe
TPMMuckraker
The Trail (WashPost)
Truthdig
USA Today On Politics
U.S. Chamber of Commerce Blog
VF Daily
Washington Wire (WSJ)
Weekly Standard
Wonkette
Yeas and Nays

Briefing Room Blog Topics

 Blog Summaries » Day's End Round-Up »
 Energy & Environment » Midday Blog Roundup »
 Morning Read » News »
  Campaigns »   Administration »
   Civil Rights »   Congressional Campaigns »
   Corporate Governance »   Defense »
   Economy & Budget »   Foreign Policy »
   Healthcare »   Homeland Security »
   Immigration »   Labor »
   Law and Courts »   Lobbyists »
   Presidential Campaigns »   Technology »
   Telecom and IT »   Trade and Agriculture »
  Energy & Environment »  Lawmaker News »
   Administration »   Campaigns »
   Civil Rights »   Corporate Governance »
   Defense »   Economy & Budget »
   Energy & Environment »   Foreign Policy »
   Healthcare »   Homeland Security »
   Immigration »   Labor »
   Lobbyists »   Technology »
   Telecom and IT »   Trade and Agriculture »
  Legislation »   Administration »
   Campaigns »   Civil Rights »
   Corporate Governance »   Defense »
   Economy & Budget »   Energy & Environment »
   Foreign Policy »   Healthcare »
   Homeland Security »   Immigration »
   Labor »   Lobbyists »
   Technology »   Telecom and IT »
   Trade and Agriculture »  Lobbying »
   Administration »   Campaigns »
   Civil Rights »   Corporate Governance »
   Defense »   Economy & Budget »
   Energy & Environment »   Foreign Policy »
   Healthcare »   Homeland Security »
   Immigration »   Labor »
   Lobbyists »   Technology »
   Telecom and IT »   Trade and Agriculture »
  Other »   Administration »
   Campaigns »   Civil Rights »
   Congressional Campaigns »   Corporate Governance »
   Defense »   Economy & Budget »
   Energy & Environment »   Foreign Policy »
   Healthcare »   Homeland Security »
   Immigration »   Labor »
   Lobbyists »   Presidential Campaigns »
   Technology »   Telecom and IT »
   Trade and Agriculture »  Oversight »
   Administration »   Campaigns »
   Civil Rights »   Corporate Governance »
   Defense »   Economy & Budget »
   Energy & Environment »   Foreign Policy »
   Healthcare »   Homeland Security »
   Immigration »   Labor »
   Lobbyists »   Technology »
   Telecom and IT »   Trade and Agriculture »

Get latest news from The Hill direct to your inbox, RSS reader and mobile devices.