Hillary Clinton Proposes Middle-Class Tax Cut Tied to Health Care

[riversedge]

Source: nytimes




5:13 pm ET By Amy Chozick


Hillary Clinton Proposes Middle-Class Tax Cut Tied to Health Care





Hillary Rodham Clinton at Mountain View Community College in Dallas on Tuesday.Credit LM Otero/Associated Press



MEMPHIS — Hillary Rodham Clinton on Friday proposed a tax credit for families and individuals who face excessive and unexpected health care costs, the first part of multipronged approach to giving middle-class Americans tax relief that she will unveil in the coming days, according to her campaign.

The proposal, which would provide a tax credit on health costs of up to $2,500 for an individual and $5,000 for a family, comes as Mrs. Clinton has sought to use the issue of taxes on the middle-class to draw a distinction between her proposals and those of her main rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

Speaking at a rally at LeMoyne-Owen, a historically black college here, Mrs. Clinton introduced the tax credit and, without evoking Mr. Sander’s name, told the crowd, “You deserve a raise — not a tax increase, and I’m not going to stand for that.”

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The Clinton campaign points to a 2013 proposal for a single-payer health care system Mr. Sanders proposed in the Senate as evidence that his plan would increase taxes on millions of Americans.......................
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........................In Iowa on Sunday, she will present another round of proposals for tax cuts, paid for, in the words of a campaign aide, “by a set of proposals Clinton supports in order to ensure the wealthiest of Americans pay their fair share.”

“We need to take care of people who are left out and left behind,” Mrs. Clinton said in Memphis before she headed to her next event in Nashville. ..................

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2015/11/20/hillary-clinton-proposes-middle-class-tax-cut-tied-to-health-care/?partner=rss&emc=rss

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Once again--Hillary the policy wonk--working hard for all families.




Brian Fallon ?@brianefallon 15s16 seconds ago

NYT: Hillary Clinton Proposes Middle-Class Tax Cut Tied to Health Care http://nyti.ms/1SNybnY

[riversedge]

1. Pic of Hillary in Memphis TN today.....

Hillary in Memphis Tn today for a Grassroots rally....



Lots of pics and tweets at this link--here we are again--Hillary working for every vote.


http://www.democraticunderground.com/1251832626#post46

[Warpy]

2. Hey, Hillary, TAX CITS DON'T WORK

The only thing that's going to work for (formerly) middle class families, for the economy, and for the country is a steep rise in wages. Gain back some of what's been stolen from us by the 0.1% over the last 45 years.

Raising wages will not only raise the living standard of all families, it will raise tax revenue across the board, strengthen Social Security, and provide enough boost to the demand side of the economic equation to provoke another boom economy.

Tax cuts will do nothing. That's been proven time and time again, and you know what Einstein said about people who do the same thing over and over again expecting a different result...

[unblock]

8. details matter. it's far too simplistic to lump all tax cuts in the same boat.

much depends on who benefits, for what, and what is lacking in the economy at the time.

shrub's tax cuts were horrible because the overwhelming beneficiaries were rich people who already had plenty of money and got more money for doing what they were already doing. it was a massive waste of government resources, giving money to people who were unlikely to spend or even invest in this country.

our economy has suffered from low demand for quite a while now, and a tax cut that stimulates demand would help the economy. i've seen very few details of what hillary is proposing, but it seem initially to be along those lines. offsetting healthcare costs for people on the lower end of the income-tax paying spectrum would certainly help stimulate demand, and paying for it with more taxes for people at the higher end of the income spectrum would sop up a bit of the excess capital that isn't doing anyone any good.

i agree that direct spending on people even further down the income spectrum (particularly those paying little or no income taxes) would help even more to stimulate demand, as would other measures to improve wages, such as a nice hike in the minimum wage. but i don't think it's sensible to dismiss any and all tax cuts out of hand.

[Warpy]

10. I inherited being in the middle class

and my tax bill is between $4500-$6000 per year. Even a generous 10% tax cut would net me $450-$600/year, really a drop in the bucket. Targeting it to the middle class will prevent another windfall to the ultra rich but it won't do much to raise living standards or stimulate the economy. Maybe a few credit cards would get paid off, maybe there would be another payment to the student loan, but that's it.

A steep and meaningful wage increase, however, would do these things. It is also vitally necessary before people lose hope completely and we all know where that leads, never to anyplace sane people want to go.

[unblock]

15. if i'm understanding the proposal right, you would benefit rather more than that

if the proposal is a tax *credit* for health care costs up to $5,000, then you could benefit by getting affordable health insurance with a $5,000 deductible, with your deductible fully recovered as your tax bill would be reduced to no more than $1,000 per year (ok, you'd be out $500 in a year where you would otherwise have had a tax bill of $4,500 and still had $5,000 in expenses meeting your deductible).

again, the details matter. shrub's tax cut included that silly $300 tax cut for the rest of us; that was a cruel joke while the government was buying lexuses for the rich.

[Warpy]

19. I'm on Medicare

Last edited Sat Nov 21, 2015, 02:59 AM - Edit history (1)

and I'd far rather see substantial rises in wages supporting that, too.

Funny how all the keys to the problems we face come down to wage increases, not tax cuts. Federal taxes are the least of the average person's problem. Only the rich see those as the basic problem.

Clinton doesn't see how much comes back to depressed wages. She is selectively blind.

This is why I won't be supporting her in the primary and why I will only reluctantly vote for her in the general. She doesn't see the problem. She can't possibly see its solution. It will be four more years of Third Way nonsense that DOES NOT WORK.

ETA: That tax cut is likely to be just like all the others, a PERCENTAGE of your taxes up to a MAXIMUM of $5000. Better listen carefully to that tax proposal. If you pay $4500/year, it's not all coming back if you had $5000 in out of pocket health costs.

It never does. The gummint can't afford to be that generous. If you owe $4500 in taxes and you get that generous 10% deduction, you'll still get that princely $450 back and it still won't do squat.

[Autumn]

3. Tax cut tax curs tax cuts. Yeah that's a fresh and exciting idea that will work

[TM99]

26. Trickle down neoliberalism

is what we expect from her. At least she is being honest again about being a moderate centrist instead of playing the role of a progressive.

[SunSeeker]

4. K & R

[ruffburr]

5. Give me a Break-

So a little pencil whipping of the numbers and the insurance companies and Big pharma get what they want while the people get a little bone to keep them quite, Such a Deal, She's a regular ground breaker, Status quo once more.

[NotHardly]

7. Haters gottta hate

... steps, sometimes initial steps are necessary ahead of the leap. I would remind you who fought for universal health care during the Bill Clinton administrations, her initials start with Hilary.

[YOHABLO]

17. So what happened? She doesn't say anything about her health care initiative in the 90s.

I suppose she's evolved right out of that one.

[Warren Stupidity]

6. So this is a pass through subsidy to the for profit

health insurance industry. Instead of fixing the system it just rewards the greed infested corporate establishment while masquerading as a benefit for people.

[PSPS]

16. You're exactly right

This just shovels taxpayer money into the lavish lifestyles of insurance company CEO's.

[mpcamb]

27. It looks awfully similar to Bob Dole's 1993 plan and John McCain's 2008 proposal.

More Trickle down stuff.

[yardwork]

9. This is a smart campaign move.

[TiberiusB]

11. How is this going to get paid for?

Who picks up the tab for the tax cut? That revenue either has to come from higher taxes somewhere else or reduced services.

I wonder how Hillary feels about the proposed massive giveaway to Wall Street and corporate America in the form of a "repatriation" tax holiday? Nothing like rewarding tax dodgers with a HUGE tax break worth hundreds of billions. You can't burn the candle at both ends, especially when one end is being lit with a match while the other is using a blow torch.

[riversedge]

14. Your answer to your question is in the article. Try reading vs conquering up stuff.

[TiberiusB]

21. Conquering up stuff...I am the Genghis Khan of the Internets

Tell you what, I'll read the article...again...in the hope that I will see a plan to pay for these tax cuts, if you promise to look up the definition of "conquering".

Now if you had written "conjuring", that would be different. That I could work with. "Conquering", while kind of awesome sounding, just leaves me stumped.

But hey, let's talk turkey. It is the season.

I know Hillary is supposed to reveal a plan to tax the wealthy this weekend, a plan I assume she will, if she is elected, need to get past a GOP dominated Congress. Of course, I read on DU a lot about how Bernie Sanders will never get anything past the GOP, that all his proposals are unrealistic. Obama has failed to push any real tax increases through on Wall Street or the wealthy. How will Hillary do it? Will the group that brought us email-gate and Benghazi roll over should she take the Oval Office?

Still wondering what stuff I conque...conjured up, though. The very real push by the White House and Congress to broker an enormous tax break for corporations with a repatriation tax holiday?

Admittedly, it is hard to engage in meaningful dialog with a reply so short it makes Twitter feel like Moby Dick...War and Peace?...Wait, Ulysses! How about <insert name of classic literature thick enough to stop a charging rhino here>?

[CharlotteVale]

12. Chickenfeed and you need $$ upfront when you have an emergency.

$2,500 won't do squat when you have huge medical expenses.

But then this is the same Hillary who voted for the Bankruptcy Reform Act which made it much harder for the middle class to file for bankruptcy because of medical debt, so I already know just how much she believes in helping the middle class with medical bills.

[JDPriestly]

25. Hillary has no clue. It's a good thing she has lots of money because she sure doesn't understand

how to pinch pennies.

This tax cut will have to be paid for. Whose taxes will rise to pay for it?

Or what other expenditures will be cut to pay for it?

Other developed countries all have some form of single payer insurance, and consistently, their medical care, deductibles, medications, all of it is less expensive than ours.

That is the reason we should have single payer heath insurance. It is more efficient and costs less than our for-profit health insurance.

The tax cut is really a giveaway to the insurance companies. If they know that citizens have a tax cut for additional costs, they will right away raise the deductible amounts and add on costs to the healthcare.

Why do I predict they will do that? Because they are machines to make money -- greedy machines to make money -- the for-profit insurance companies. They are just greedy machines to make money off the misery of ordinary people.

And Hillary is dancing to their tune.

[MaggieD]

13. This is what I love about Hillary

She knows single payer doesn't have a prayer and cons love tax breaks. So this is doable. Bernie just thinks in pie in the sky extremes. That's why he never gets things done.

[YOHABLO]

18. No, Bernie can't get things done because of the chicken shit Dems who won't support his initiatives.

Plus we have a Republican majority held House and Senate.

[MaggieD]

20. No, Bernie can't get things done because....

He has pie in the sky proposals that absolutely ignore political reality. For that reason a vote for him is a vote to accomplish nothing, just like the nothing he has been accomplishing for 25 years in congress.

[JDPriestly]

23. Single payer is not pie in the sky. It is the healthcare insurance plan across Europe.

It's great. I lived in Europe for years (as I tell DUers nauseatingly often; you probably know it already) and I absolutely loved it.

With single payer insurance, the patient is not limited to the slate of doctors who happens to be on his/her plan. Virtually all the doctors are on one plan. The only problem in getting the doctor you want is how busy their schedule is. You don't have to worry about needing emergency care or getting care when you are in another state because everybody is on the same plan.

The administrative costs are lower with single payer -- especially for your doctor. He doesn't have different forms to fill out for different insurance companies. Single payer is far more efficient than what we have now. I absolutely loved it. The emphasis for the doctor is caring for patients, not trying to optimize profits to cover the inevitable losses when the insurer does not pay.

French doctors saved my life. And at one point, they gave a new medication that was still experimental to one of my children. It helped her enormously. Turned out to be very good.

I love single payer. So will Americans when we finally adopt it. The insurance does not have to be micro-managed by the government. But it should at least be non-profit.

Our for-profit insurance is no good and costs too much.

I'm on Medicare and my provider is Kaiser. Kaiser is the closest medical group to single payer I think. The emphasis is on preventive medicine. I like that. It's well organized and efficient. It's doctor owned. The doctors get any profits it generates. I think that is fair.

[JDPriestly]

24. How does she plan to pay for the tax cut? A tax cut is a giveaway. It is an entitlement even more

of an entitlement than welfare. What will she cut or whose taxes will she raise to pay for this tax cut?

Single payer would be cheaper. Our for profit system is one of the most expensive if not the most expensive system in the world.

In reality the tax break will simply give money to the for profit insurance companies and not to middle class Americans. If they know that Americans are getting tax relief for high medical bills, the insurance companies will raise the cost of the deductibles and the insurance.

This is a lousy idea.

Single payer is the only way to improve American health care.

[JDPriestly]

22. Whose taxes will she raise to pay for this tax cut?

A tax-cut is a give-away. The money that would have come from the taxes that have been cut has to come from some other revenue source. So what taxes, whose taxes, will she cut in order to pay for this tax cut?

Or does she plan to cut expenditures?

How would she pay for this?