Durbin: Senate Dems not onboard with House healthcare surtax

[babylonsister]

And there's Kyl, showering small businesses with his sympathy, as if his own bottom line hasn't been considered.

http://briefingroom.thehill.com/2009/07/12/durbin-senate-dems-not-onboard-with-house-healthcare-surtax/


Durbin: Senate Dems not onboard with House healthcare surtax
@ 10:25 am by Jeremy P. Jacobs


Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) signaled Sunday that Senate Democrats will seek an alternative way to pay for healthcare reform than the House Democrats' proposal to increase taxes on the wealthy.

"I think we are going to have a different approach," Durbin said on ABC's "This Week." "We understand we have to combine cuts and actual spending on healthcare, savings from hospitals, from doctors and health insurance companies along with new revenue."

At the end of last week, House Ways and Means Chairman Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) announced a proposal to raise taxes on those earning more than $350,000 to raise $540 billion to pay for healtchare reform.

Senate and House Democrats are trying to find ways to come up with about $1 trillion to pay for healthcare reform.

Durbin said the Senate Finance Committee "is considering a lot of different options."

Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) said bluntly that the Republican caucus would not support the tax hike. He said the policy would be a job killer.

"We're in a recession," Kyl said. "At least 55 percent of the income that would be generated by this surtax directly hits the entrepreneurs that run…small businesses."

[villager]

1. Senate Dems not "on board" with much of anything, really...

Unless it's, you know, a Republican idea....

[Mojambo]

2. I know quite a few small business owners. Not one of them is making 350 grand a year. n/t