Funding The Bill

Howard Gleckman studies "Obama's proposal to boost the Medicare tax is a key element of the compromise health bill that looks increasingly as if it is going to become law." The tax would fall almost exclusively on the top one percent of earners:

Converting this chunk of Medicare funding to a progressive income tax, rather than a regressive payroll levy, is an interesting idea. But doing it in this ad hoc way, and only for the very wealthiest taxpayers, seems pretty clumsy. But the worst part is that it will force me to stop calling the Medicare levy a payroll tax. If this bill passes, it will henceforth have to be known simply as the Medicare tax.