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Higher taxes on highest earnings to pay for health
Democratic lawmakers in the US House of Representatives want to increase taxes on the highest- earning American families to help pay for an overhaul of the nation's health care system.
- Bloomberg
- Published: 23:59 July 11, 2009
Washington: Democratic lawmakers in the US House of Representatives want to increase taxes on the highest- earning American families to help pay for an overhaul of the nation's health care system.
Legislation to be unveiled on July 13 would raise $540 billion (Dh1.9 trillion) over the next decade by setting a 1 per cent surtax on couples with more than $350,000 in annual income, said Representative Charles Rangel, chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee. Higher rates would take effect for those earning $500,000 and $1 million, Rangel said.
The New York Democrat said his panel decided this was the simplest means of funding the biggest health-care revamp in more than four decades.
The surtax is the "best way" to do it, Rangel told reporters on Friday at the US Capitol, adding that it would take effect in 2011. Republicans disagreed, saying the measure would hit small business owners and depress job growth.
The announcement capped a week of closed-door meetings during which lawmakers have struggled to decide how to pay for the legislation, which may cost as much as $1 trillion. There was a fresh round of talks on Saturday as Democratic leaders tried to quell a rebellion over the cost of health-care legislation by dozens of members of their own party.
In a letter to party leaders, 40 members of the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of self-proclaimed fiscally conservative Democrats, raised "strong reservations" about the draft of a bill they said would fail to reduce health care costs and may hurt doctors and hospitals.
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