Even as we speak some Democrats are thinking about a major tax increase that will have a great impact on hard working lower and middle income Americans. Per Uwe Reinhardt in Economix in the NY Times:

There are many third rails in the politics of health reform, but probably none with quite the high voltage of one proposal: the idea of taxing part, or all, of the health insurance premiums paid by employers on behalf of their employees.

Some members of Congress — notably the Democratic chairman of the Senate Finance Committee,  Max Baucus — are now stretching their hands gingerly toward that third rail, and sparks are flying even before the rail has been touched.

As Wonks Anonymous noted in this space yesterday removing the tax exemption on health benefits would raise the income of family who got these benefits by something like $15,000 to $20,000 dollars. They would have to pay payroll and income taxes on this increase even though they would get no additional money from their employers. In other words their take home pay would be cut by the full amount of new taxes.

In our democracy we rely on the press to report on such major changes in policy and the opposition party to oppose them. This is a natural issue for the Republicans who are opposed to increased taxes and want to defend ordinary folks from the government.

So aside form Economix, which is a fine blog but still just a blog, the press is grandly unconcerned with this story. The front page of Wonks Anonymous morning SF Comical and the lead article in the NY Times are both devoted to Nancy Pelosi's current predicament.  What did she know about torture and when?

The Republicans can talk about nothing else.

I guess that we should get ready to pay taxes on our health benefits because it appears that the fix is in. We do need a real opposition party in this country.