June 14, 2009 12:07 PM

Durbin: Hard To Support Additional Health Care Tax

By
Michelle Levi
Topics
In The News
(CBS)

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said he agrees with Vice President Joe Biden that taxing employer-based health insurance is not a good remedy for the health care crisis.

"Max Baucus has a tough assignment," Durbin said of the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, who is proposing such a option.

As for voting for a plan which includes a tax on existing benefits, Durbin said, "It would not be easy for me to do."

When asked by Face The Nation host Bob Schieffer about the perils of proposing taxes, Durbin said, "Keep in mind that everyone today faces a hidden tax" in health insurance premiums which Americans absorb to cover the uninsured.

Durbin congratulated the president on targeting the first $600 billion in heath care savings, calling Mr. Obama's suggested cuts "reasonable and logical," and he noted that it is now up to Congress to come up with the rest of the money needed to reform what he called an "unsustainable" system.

On Senator McConnell's admission that Senate Republicans would work to block the president from closing the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Durbin said, "He takes his position with Vice President Cheney and Mr. Limbaugh. I happen to side with General Colin Powell and General Petraeus.

"I believe Guantanamo should be closed. It's a recruiting tool for terrorists around the world," Durbin said.


More from Face The Nation (6.14.09):
  • McConnell: Public Health Option A "Non-Starter"
  • McConnell: Gitmo A "Perfect Place" For Terrorists
  • Schieffer: Remembering Tim Russert
  • Read The Complete Transcript> (pdf)

    To watch Dick Durbin on Face The Nation click on the video player below.


    • Add a Comment
    by sjc_1 June 15, 2009 12:24 AM EDT
    Optional National Health Insurance but not mandatory health insurance. As health care insurance becomes more affordable, more people can afford it. Do NOT tax health insurance benefits. You tax liquor and cigarettes because they are unhealthy and you want to discourage their use. You WANT to have people with health insurance so you make incentives to have it.
    Reply to this comment
    by stn_sage June 15, 2009 12:10 AM EDT
    Am I mistaken or have the republicans been screaming no taxes or cut taxes now they want to tax health care giveth with one hand taketh away with the other
    Posted by starleo146 at 3:02 PM : Jun 14, 2009
    ====================================
    You are correct! For the moment---that is! That is subject to change if need be. It's called the 'GOP two-step'---the majority of them scream, ' no, new taxes', while leaders quietly announce on Sunday morning---while everyone is
    in church or hungover---that they want to tax health benefits.

    And, why not? Most of the money gained will come from the middle and lower classes, not the upper economic stratum!
    Thus, the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer!

    Which, is one of their true, core principles anyway!
    Reply to this comment
    by starleo146 June 14, 2009 6:02 PM EDT
    Am I mistaken or have the republicans been screaming no taxes or cut taxes now they want to tax health care giveth with one hand taketh away with the other
    Reply to this comment
    by tautomer June 14, 2009 6:00 PM EDT
    xlib, didn't you know? MoveOn.org isn't anti-war anymore. In fact, the whole of what used to be the "anti-war movement" isn;t anti-war anymore!

    iam4 is just blindly following the party line.
    Reply to this comment
    by xlib June 14, 2009 2:56 PM EDT
    Why the continued hard on for Limbaugh libs? I mean to hear a sitting TOTUS go out of his way to insult Limbaugh is kind of beneath the position, don't you think?
    When the talking heads in your state run media went after Bush on a daily basis he never stooped to the level your messiah is stooping. Seems to me his thug Chicago upbringing is coming out.. Classless, just classless.
    As for 1m4honesty and your remark about Petraeus, just how short is your memory?? I do believe it was the soros run group moveon.org who put the full page ad in your NY Times the day before the General was to give his report on the surge to congress. Did your side NOT call him a liar before he even opened his mouth??
    DID YOU NOT? And now you compliment the man.
    You people are incredible, just incredible.
    Reply to this comment
    by iam4honesty June 14, 2009 2:18 PM EDT
    On Senator McConnell's admission that Senate Republicans would work to block the president from closing the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Durbin said, "He takes his position with Vice President Cheney and Mr. Limbaugh. I happen to side with General Colin Powell and General Petraeus.


    That pretty much sums it up. Side with the two biggest whackos on the planet or two of the most respected military men on the planet.
    Reply to this comment
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