Republicans Gut Middle Class Healthcare to Preserve Trump Billionaire Tax Breaks
The Government Shutdown is here.
At last, Congressional Democrats showed some spine by demanding that a key Middle Class health benefit be preserved. The benefit: the ability to purchase healthcare on the Federal Exchange. This benefits you if:
You want to retire before you are eligible for Medicare
If you quit your job to start a business.
If you lose your job and can’t get COBRA benefits.
If you want to work for an employer that doesn’t offer health benefits.
You are self-employed.
Republicans want to gut this important Middle Class benefit by axing tax credits that Middle Class people can use to purchase decent healthcare. Insurance consultants predict that a 55 year old couple in Portland with a household income of $85,000 will see their premium payment skyrocket from $600 a month to $1800 a month. If, as is expected, hundreds of thousands are forced to drop coverage, a result will be higher premiums. In other words, a double whammy.
An additional complication brought to the Middle Class by Republicans: the enrollment period is shortened by one month, which means you have less time to figure out what to do.
Billionaire Tax Breaks
Republicans wanted to give the billionaires a tax break. They did it in the Big Beautiful Bill by getting rid of a 2.9% tax hike on income over $400,000. This gave the billionaire group an additional $4 million per billionaire each year. To help pay for that, Republicans decided to crack down on a Middle Class benefit
Republicans could take a big step towards helping Middle Class Healthcare by cancelling these Trump billionaire tax breaks. Estimates by Penn-Wharton imply that $52 billion can be raised by eliminating the Trump\OBBB tax break for those earning over $4.2 million a year. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the Obamacare tax subsidiaries are $91 billion.
Fair pay.
Fair competition.
Dignity for all.
For background on income and wealth inequality go to www.growthemiddleclass.com