iSawNEWS » Taxes

Dust-up over healthcare reform ahead of Senate panel’s vote

Admin — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 13:37:19 +0000

The fragile consensus in favor of healthcare reform may be coming apart.

With the Senate Finance Committee due to vote on its reform bill Tuesday, the insurance industry’s trade group released an analysis saying the measure would drive up costs by thousands of dollars over the next decade.

The White House quickly fired back.

“This is a self-serving analysis from the insurance industry, one of the major opponents of health insurance reform,” spokesman Reid Cherlin said.

“It comes on the eve of a vote that will reduce the industry’s profits. It is hard to take it seriously,” he said.

The analysis commissioned by America’s Health Insurance Plans says insurance premiums under the Finance Committee plan would rise even faster than if the United States did nothing to reform its $2.5 trillion healthcare system, the costliest in the world.

The report, produced by PricewaterhouseCoopers, said the average insurance premium for a family of four is $12,300 today and would rise to $21,900 by 2019 if nothing is done.

If measures in the Senate Finance Committee bill become law, the cost of premiums for the same family would rise to $25,900, the analysis says.

The reason for the higher costs is that the mandate for purchasing insurance is too weak and many young, healthy people will decide not to buy insurance, the analysis says.

Plus, the cost of the taxes on high-cost insurance plans and on some sectors of the health care industry would be passed directly on to the consumer, it says.

“The overall impact of these provisions will be to increase the cost of private insurance coverage for individuals, families and businesses above what these costs would be in the absence of reform,” the analysis says.

A spokesman for Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus rejected the analysis, calling it “a health insurance company hatchet job, plain and simple.”

“This report is untrue, disingenuous and bought and paid for by the same health insurance companies that have been gouging too many consumers for too long,” said Baucus spokesman Scott Mulhauser.

Groups fighting for healthcare reform also reacted angrily.

“This is a transparent attempt by the health insurance industry to sabotage reform,” said Richard Kirsch of the Health Care for America Now.

“They’re out to protect their money and their power and they’ll go to any lengths — including circulating fake information — to stop real change,” he said.

But Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell cautioned against rejecting the analysis out of hand.

“Higher premiums, higher taxes, and more government — that’s not reform,” he said, calling the plan a “$1 trillion experiment that cuts Medicare, raises taxes and premiums and threatens the healthcare options that millions of Americans enjoy.”

For more Reuters political news, click here.

Photo credit: Reuters/Jim Young (Max Baucus after a healthcare reform meeting Sept. 14); Reuters/Richard Clement (Baucus, Senator Jim Bunning discuss healthcare amendments Oct. 1)

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Early retirements strain Social Security system (AP)

Admin — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 14:58:32 +0000

Big job losses and a spike in early retirement claims from laid-off seniors will force Social Security to pay out more in benefits than it collects in taxes the next two years, the first time that’s happened since the 1980s.
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More tax cases vs wealthy, U.S. banks

Admin — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 06:47:22 +0000

CHICAGO (Reuters) – The U.S. government is stepping up prosecutions of wealthy individuals dodging taxes through off-shore accounts, with new cases expected to be made public “every couple of weeks,” a top government attorney said on Saturday.

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Hey Diego! Know where you should avoid?

Admin — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 17:12:05 +0000

I’m very reluctant to call anyone stupid. What? Yes, I HAVE used that word in 423 blog posts, which just goes to show my restraint.

So here is this story about “soccer legend” Diego Maradona. He checked into a weight-loss clinic in Italy, and finance police promptly seized his earrings to help pay off his back taxes.

Now, what’s odd about that?

Our story says three years ago tax police took two Rolex watches from Maradona when he was in Italy for a benefit match.

In 2005, they seized his payout for participating in a TV dancing show, and in 2001 he was met by 20 police officers as he got off a plane in Rome.

Now, if this happened to me with such regularity, I’d say, “WTF! Give me a map of Europe! I’m gonna figure out which place is Italy, and not go there anymore!”

But instead, this guy seems to pack for every visit saying, “I need to take something nice for the tax man….”

“Oh look, honey, they’re waiting for us at customs! Give me a necklace or something – it’s impolite to not bring them anything!”

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Left:Former Argentine soccer star Diego Maradona at a match in Buenos Aires, in 2006. REUTERS/Marcos Brindicci

Right: Argentina’s national soccer coach Maradona watches their World Cup 2010 qualifying soccer match against in Asuncion, September 9, 2009. REUTERS/ Stringer

More stuff from Oddly Enough

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Pa. budget deal ends impasse with cuts, taxes (AP)

Admin — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 03:11:21 +0000

AP – Gov. Ed Rendell and legislative leaders reached a budget deal Friday to end Pennsylvania’s distinction as the last state still fighting over its annual spending plan.
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Fall: The Best Time To Visit Florida

Admin — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 14:42:05 +0000

As a Floridian, it’s your job to promote tourism in exchange for not having to pay state income taxes. They put the oath in your welcome packet when you move into the state. The oath starts out, “Thou shall respect The Mouse…”

Needless to say, I took a risk when I told you that Disney World sucks in the summer.

But, I am here to redeem myself and Florida by inviting you, officially, to visit Florida at the absolute best time of year.

Right now.

The best time to visit Florida is in the fall.

And do you know what makes Florida such a great place to visit in the fall? The fact that no one visits Florida in the fall. Basically.

If you’re headed to Florida to enjoy the beaches, you’ll find miles of sand and surf all to yourself – and the weather is still warm enough to enjoy a swim in the ocean or the Gulf. If amusement parks are more your style, you’ll find shorter lines and less soul crushing humidity.

On the down side, autumn falls squarely at the end of hurricane season in Florida. As in – before it’s actually over. So you do run the risk of having your vacation cut short by a tropical storm or a full on hurricane. BUT! If you’re willing to take that chance, you’ll also find great hurricane season rates on everything from cruise ships to ocean front hotels. The risk taker gets the deal, in this case.

Just get here before Thanksgiving. The closer you get to the winter holidays, the lower the temperatures and the more tourists you’ll have to contend with. Dang tourists!

Photo by Britt Reints. Or maybe her husband. But Britt Reints totally owns it and has permission to use it.

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Should junk food be taxed?

Admin — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 06:18:59 +0000

Increasingly vocal calls for taxes on sugary drinks and junk food are fueling a behind- the-scenes battle that public health officials say is reminiscent of America’s war on cigarettes.

Fueling the debate are revenue-hungry federal, state and local governments officials who are eying a potential $50 billion windfall from taxes on over 10 years.

Take a look at the New York City Department of Health’s ad discouraging people from drinking sugary sodas, and let us know whether you think a junk food tax would be good public policy, or an intrusive step too far by the nanny state.

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Tax Pledge Is a Target As Deficits, Debt Grow

Admin — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 11:12:28 +0000

During last year’s campaign, President Obama vowed to enact a bold agenda without raising taxes for the middle class, a pledge budget experts viewed with skepticism. Since then, a severe recession, massive deficits and a national debt that is swelling toward a 50-year high have only made his promise…

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IAC starts spending some of its cash on more dating sites

Admin — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 02:09:10 +0000

IAC chief Barry Diller has spent the last year building and then sitting on a pile of cash, which rose to $2 billion in the first quarter — only some $400 million less than its entire market cap of $2.4 billion. Journalists and Wall Street have asked Diller repeatedly how he intends to use the cash. A big M&A move perhaps? A generous one-time dividend maybe? Or share buybacks?

Diller is focused on adding to his empire of Internet units in small increments rather than making major acquisitions. That empire includes dating site Match.com, search engine Ask.com, event planning site evite and many others.

Here’s Diller back in April on the first quarter conference call with analysts: “While I can’t say what we’ll do, obviously, other than invest in the businesses we have, because we believe they’re worthy of investments, relatively small scale, we’re open but I am actually not optimistic about being able to extensively spend the enormously large amounts of cash that we have. It could change on a dime, but there it is at the moment.”

True to his word Match.com said on Tuesday it has signed an agreement to buy People Media, an operators of targeted dating sites for $80 million in cash from American Capital Ltd.

People Media owns 27 dating sites incluing BlackPeopleMeet.com, SingleParentMeet.com and SeniorPeopleMeet.com with a combined 255,000 paying subscribers. IAC said People Media generated $11.6 million in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) in 2008.

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Pope urges bold world economic reform before G8 summit

Admin — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 16:15:29 +0000

Pope Benedict issued an ambitious call to reform the way the world works on Tuesday shortly before its most powerful leaders meet at the G8 summit in Italy. His latest encyclical, entitled “Charity in Truth,” presents a long list of steps he thinks are needed to overcome the financial crisis and shift economic activity from the profit motive to a goal of solidarity of all people.

Following are some of his proposals. The italics are from the original text. Do you think they are realistic food for thought or idealistic notions with no hope of being put into practice?

“There is urgent need of a true world political authority. .. to manage the global economy; to revive economies hit by the crisis; to avoid any deterioration of the present crisis and the greater imbalances that would result; to bring about integral and timely disarmament, food security and peace; to guarantee the protection of the environment and to regulate migration… such an authority would need to be universally recognized and to be vested with the effective power to ensure security for all, regard for justice, and respect for rights.”
The economy needs ethics in order to function correctly – not any ethics whatsoever, but an ethics which is people-centred…”
“Financiers must rediscover the genuinely ethical foundation of their activity, so as not to abuse the sophisticated instruments which can serve to betray the interests of savers. Right intention, transparency, and the search for positive results are mutually compatible and must never be detached from one another.”
“Without doubt, one of the greatest risks for businesses is that they are almost exclusively answerable to their investors, thereby limiting their social value… there is nevertheless a growing conviction that business management cannot concern itself only with the interests of the proprietors, but must also assume responsibility for all the other stakeholders who contribute to the life of the business: the workers, the clients, the suppliers of various elements of production, the community of reference… What should be avoided is a speculative use of financial resources that yields to the temptation of seeking only short-term profit, without regard for the long-term sustainability of the enterprise, its benefit to the real economy and attention to the advancement, in suitable and appropriate ways, of further economic initiatives in countries in need of development.”
“One possible approach to development aid would be to apply effectively what is known as fiscal subsidiarity, allowing citizens to decide how to allocate a portion of the taxes they pay to the State.”

(Photo: Pope Bendict, 1 July 2009/Tony Gentile)

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