Study: House Democrats’ Health Care Bill Pushes Top Tax Rates to Over 50% in Most States

Has anyone considered the services or lack there of that will be provided by a gov't runned organization. What if they decide whether you or a certain family member is worth the cost of certain procedures because of age or any other reason. Happens all the time in countries with this type of system.
Furthermore, its not 50 million uninsured americans. Its far less when you deduct the 10-15 million illegal aliens and those that other 10-15 million that could afford it but prefer to drive a new car, not work, vacation frequently or have the latest gadgets. When it comes down to it, is it worth it for just the 20 million americans that really need it. Why don't we work out a less expense private insurance for those 20 million.

"That government is best which governs least." - Thomas Paine. America is already taxed too much. If the government continues to take on new responsibilities and offers more and more so-called entitlements, more and more of our income - of the middle-class and rich - will be pinched by the government. That's not a theory, it is how it is going to be. Scary.

Just remember that these figures don't include the taxes you pay in terms of sales tax and taxes on electricity, phone, gas, cigarettes, alcohol, and all of the other "hidden" taxes we pay every day.

Our Government is crazy, I really think they are. They are a bunch of crazy old men and women who have their ideas on how the world should be. They don't care what the American's think its all about the power.

Where does it end? remember during the elections they couldn't even get who the rich were. Was it at 150K, 250K it kept changing. Give me a break it doesn't matter the government is going to take what they want because they have the power.

If anyone still believes that the power is in the peoples hands think again. We are no better then when our forefathers broke away from the British. It's history repeating it's self only problem is we don't have a "New World" to move to.

You want Government to administer Health Care to a country of 340+ million people? First of all not realistic & a great deal of people don't believe it's possible. Also great chance that it would bankrupt the entire Government. Social Security and Medicare have been such successes, we're only on the hook for around 90 trillion dollars on those two right now.

Not to be too controversial here but I believe earning infinite sums of money is not a right but a privilege, and people should respect that privilege. Don't forget that profit often comes at the expense of others, and too often from the exploitation of others.

Why is there no tort reform in the new bill? Isn't that one of the largest problems?? How does congress fix anything when ignoring the true problems? This isn't reform, it's a takeover.

The Congressional Budget office has said health care costs to the nation will rise MORE if the Health care bill is passed. Shouldn't the bill be dumped for that reason alone??? Aren't we being told this will save costs? Isn't this reform for the purpose of saving money??

Jon F.,

You're another one who doesn't understand tax law. No one is charged 50% on all their income. Look up what a marginal tax rate is. Marginal tax rates are also the reason your solution (that people will have incentives to "lower their income") makes no sense and wouldn't work. Again, the high tax rate only applies to that portion of the income that is above a certain level. Lowering your income (I assume your reason is so they go below the threshold where this kicks in) doesn't lower your tax rate on that income. It just means you take home less money. Stupid plan.

And why are you bringing up investments? Look up the difference between income tax rates and capital gains tax rates. The reason effective tax rates for the highest income earners will STILL be below 1990s levels even if this bill goes into effect is because capital gains tax rates have been so lowered in the past 30 years.

Bottom line: Top income earners will STILL be keeping more of their money if this bill goes into effect than they did in the 1990s. Were the 1990s so bad for the wealthy? Seems to me they did pretty well. What's so bad about going back to something close to those rates?

Lisa: Read the article then. If there are $354,000 households claiming incomes of $1M a year or more, can you imagine how many people are earing over $300,000. Now why are you going to single out these people and make them pay with a vengeance? Those millions of families are not all celebrities - not even close!

Or do you really think that paying tax rates in excess of 57% is fair? Now this provides incentive for people to do exactly what? It provides them with incentives to take whatever they have and put it on the sidelines, lower their income and wait for all to hit the fan. Eventually the tax tide turns, it always does.

Would you invest money if you were going to be taxed 57% if you were lucky and your investment paid off? remember, you don't get much of a break if you lose. Investing is like gambling - you win some, you lose some. But if you get over half taken away if you win - you obviously stop playing the game.

Sorry to have made it personal. But what Obama is doing is going to force down investment in this country - he already has. It will kill jobs too. It will prolong this recession in a major way. Yet Obama can sit there, oblivious, still spending trillions that no one can find a source for.

welfare for the rich huh? Thas just a stupid statement. Do you know what welfare is? Haveing 40 or 50% of your wages siphoned off isnt welfare idiot. Its redistribution so the lazy people who want something for nothing can be bought when it comes time to vote.

And those tax rates dont even include Real Property and personal property taxes or sales taxes. SO in effect, its not a stretch to consider that for every additional dollar this MINORITY in terms of sheer numbers pool of taxpayers earn, they would be lucky to see 30% of it. WHat a sad shame this country has become because of BUSH and CONGRESS, and now Obama. All they do is spend with absolutely no accountability. It doesnt work for individuals and it certainly cant work for the country. The spending must stop. If they would just let people keep their own money, we would spend if probably much more efficiently. tax spend tax spend . Pathetic

To sas and John F.,

Jump off your high horse. Infotainers making 2 million dollars a year showing off their blow-dried do's on TV every day do NOT "supply you and me and most of America with a paycheck".

Nobody is against "success". It is not anti-American to point out that the news media is severely skewed towards representing the interests of the upper income dwellers. There is nothing wrong with their interests being represented but there are millions of other hard-working Americans out here whose interests are NOT being represented when the news/celebrity class ignores them.

And don't give me the "if you only you worked as hard as them you too could be insanely wealthy". My father grew up in Hell's Kitchen, NYC, in an apartment without a shower or tub. He worked a blue collar job all his life and gave us a good life in the suburbs. He worked HARD and never took a day off. It was not for lack of hard work that he never became a multi-millionaire.

Our millionaire TV news readers do a valuable job but they get their millions not because they work harder than anyone else but because TV jobs get the big bucks. That's our celebrity culture. Fine. But the news media has a responsibility to remember that they should keep the interests of ALL Americans in mind in their reporting.

Lisa: These "un-regular" people (as you refer to them) are the one's that give you and your family jobs.

Don't bite the hand that feeds you - unless you long to be unemployed.

The response to this is quite simple and clear. Everyone who can avoid trading in Federal Dollars will. This will debase the federal dollar, and people will barter, develop their own alternative resources, whatever. You will find people with million dollar mansions who somehow only earn $10,000 per year. If you raise taxes to this level, people and capital will flee.

This doesn't lower medical costs (which is the way to get it into the hands of more people). It guarantees that we are slaves to higher costs (since we'd be required to pay for them).

I will refuse to participate in such a system.

Dear Lisa, since when is success a bad thing? What made this country great was the ability to aspire to something better then they are. Maybe you don't have that spark in you, or maybe you resent those who aspire to betters things, but there still are people out there who dream of doing better, like me. Remember Lisa, those people you resent so much, supply you and me and most of America with a pay check.

Anyone here besides me remember the likes of Harold Wilson socialising everything in the U.K.? Anyone here ever live in a country with government controlled health care, as in the UK? One blogger is absolutely right. In those days in Britain tax rates climbed to as high as 90%. Money doesn't just come out of thin air to pay for health care or trillion dollar "stimulous" bills. Obama won't be able to blame Bush for all this.

Everyone should keep in mind that the people who give us the news (particularly the highly paid TV news readers) are mostly in those top brackets. Conflict of interest much? Can we have some regular people report the news for once?

Karen...How you could possibly assign blame to the Republican minority held State Assembly is beyond comprehension...It has taken YEARS of Democratic rule to put this State in the toilet..Should have made spending cuts along time ago..Can't spend what you don't have, but no the Dems just kept on spending on unmonitored programs such as Section 8 housing...MediCal.....social programs for illegal's children, this country is made up of 12% illegal immigrants and California has 30% of those..25% of our States budget is spent on illegal immigration...The Dems control this State from the State Assembly in Sacramento right down to the Democratic mayor in Los Angeles who feels the tax payers must pay 4 Million dollars for MJ 's memorial security instead of spending that money on say more police ...TG for the 2/3 majority vote or else the Dems would have pulled the flush handle on this toilet a long time ago...

Why hasn't Obama figured out a way to go after the money of his buddy billionaires Buffet and Gates? Tax rates based on income doesn't ding these guys at all for health care.