$318 Billion Tax Hit Proposed

美国总统奥巴马周四将提议，在10年内投入6,340亿美元以扩大医疗保险覆盖面，这些资金将通过对高收入美国人加税和削减政府开支来筹集。加税和削减开支将列入奥巴马周四的综合性预算蓝图中，这也显示了他对改革医疗体制的勃勃雄心。这也是他在总统大选时极力宣传的纲领之一。AP奥巴马周三宣布了商务部长提名人选通过减少最高税率阶层的抵押贷款利息和慈善捐款等方面的抵税额度，增税措施将在10年内筹集约3,180亿美元资金。按33%和35%税率缴纳所得税的家庭目前可以申请以这一税率申请抵税。根据奥巴马的建议，这些支出只有28%可以从税中扣减。这些调整将在未来几年里逐步实施。在2009纳税年度，33%的税率将适用于应纳税收入高于208,850美元的夫妇。这个收入数额是经过个人免税和各种扣除费用调整后的金额。比如，最高税率阶层的纳税人每支付1,000美元的按揭利息，他的减税额将从350美元降至280美元。在大选时，奥巴马承诺不提高年收入25万美元以下家庭的税收。政府部门称，现在的计划同当时的限额基本一致。该计划还通过其他方式将目标对准了高收入家庭。较富裕阶层的医疗保险受益人参加处方药计划时必须缴纳更高的保费，同参加医疗保险医生计划时缴纳更高的保费一样。为了帮助收入水平处于另一端的阶层，奥巴马的预算计划将延长对中产阶层和低收入群体的减税，通过向可再生能源公司出售新的碳排放许可证筹集的数十亿美元资金弥补这方面的损失。应对全球气候变暖的“总量控制与交易制度”计划将要求想要排放热传递污染物的公司购买许可证，2012年将开始向企业拍卖这些许可证。据政府一位高级官员说，削减医疗开支会影响到管理式医疗公司处方药制造商和医院。这些行业的游说代表周三反应温和，强调他们期望看到医疗改革的成功──这是这项计划背后各方都在积蓄力量的一个信号。游说团体美国健康保险计划(America's Health Insurance Plans)的发言人罗伯特•泽克尔巴奇(Robert Zirkelbach)说，我们将建设性地参与医疗保险计划改革的各个方面。政府承认，6,340亿美元不足以支付奥巴马和许多民主党议员设想的那种医疗改革的全部成本；10年中的最终价格预计将超过1万亿美元。周三已经见到这一医疗计划的高级官员说，预算方案的目的就像是首付，他说，政府将与国会合作解决剩余款项。预算计划中没有详细谈及奥巴马将如何支出这笔资金。他在竞选时提出的一项计划是设立一个政府组织的市场，个人和企业可从中购买私营保险公司和新的政府运营医疗计划的保险。政府周四只会公布总的指导方针。其中包括：美国人应该有权选择医疗计划，也应允许他们自行决定保留雇主支持的计划。政府还说，这个计划会让美国走向为所有美国人提供保障的道路。预计更多细节将在下周有关医疗保健的白宫首脑会议上决定。奥巴马和他的助手周三对预算蓝图完成了最后的润色，开始重写金融监管规定并启动所谓的压力测试，来衡量美国摇摇欲坠的银行业的生存能力。预算计划将经过国会的严格审查，然后才能成为法律。不过，在总统任期的头一年，预算文件的重要性在于它主要是对新政府议程的广泛陈述。预算文件中还将包括一项旨在控制二氧化碳排放量的能源计划学龄前教育和高等教育的资金，以及减少联邦赤字的概要。目前美国政府的联邦预算赤字超过了1万亿美元。除了扩大医疗保险的计划外，预计奥巴马的10年蓝图也将包含大量增加税收的内容。这与布什总统提出全面大幅减税的预算方案形成了鲜明的反差。奥巴马将提出让布什对高收入家庭的减税政策在2011年到期终止，并提议阻止按照目前法律将会取消的遗产税。他还提出了一些企业方面的税收方案，以阻止公司将工作转移到海外和其它做法，政府将其称之为“封堵漏洞”。Laura Meckler相关阅读奥巴马：危机过后美国经济会更强大 2009-02-25


President Barack Obama on Thursday will propose $634 billion in new taxes on upper-income Americans and cuts in government spending over the next decade to pay for his promised health-care expansion.The tax increases and spending cuts will be included Thursday in Mr. Obama's comprehensive budget blueprint, and signal his ambition to overhaul the health-care system, one of the main planks of his presidential campaign.The tax increases would raise an estimated $318 billion over 10 years by reducing the value of such longstanding deductions as mortgage interest and charitable contributions for people in the highest tax brackets. Households paying income taxes at the 33% and 35% rates can currently claim deductions at those rates. Under the Obama proposal, they could deduct only 28% of the value of those payments.The changes would be phased in gradually over the next few years. For the 2009 tax year, the 33% tax bracket starts with couples with taxable earnings of $208,850, when adjusted for personal exemptions and various deductible expenses. A taxpayer in the top bracket paying $1,000 of mortgage interest, for example, would see a tax break worth $350 reduced to $280.During his presidential campaign, Mr. Obama promised not to raise taxes on families earning under $250,000 a year, and the administration said that this plan would roughly line up with that limit.The plan targets high-earning families in other ways. Wealthier Medicare beneficiaries would have to pay higher premiums to participate in the prescription-drug plan, much like they pay higher premiums to participate in Medicare's doctor plan.Aiding the other end of the income scale, the president's budget plan would extend his tax cuts for the middle class and working poor with some of the billions of dollars raised by the sale of new carbon-emission permits for renewable energy projects. The 'cap and trade' program to battle global warming would force companies to buy permits if they wish to emit heat-trapping pollutants, and they would be auctioned to businesses beginning in 2012.The cuts in health-care spending would affect managed-care companies, prescription-drug manufacturers and hospitals, according to a senior administration official. Lobbyists representing these industries reacted mildly Wednesday, emphasizing their interest in seeing health-care reform succeed -- a sign of the momentum already built behind the effort. 'We will be a constructive participant in efforts to reform all parts of Medicare,' said Robert Zirkelbach, spokesman for America's Health Insurance Plans, a lobby group.The administration acknowledges $634 billion is not enough to pay the full cost of health-care reform that Mr. Obama and many congressional Democrats envision; the final price tag is estimated at more than $1 trillion over 10 years. The senior official who previewed the health plan Wednesday said the budget proposal is intended as a down payment and said the administration would work with Congress to find the rest.The budget will contain few details about how Mr. Obama wants to spend the money. He campaigned on a plan to set up a government-organized marketplace where people and businesses could buy coverage from private insurers and a new government-run health plan.The administration will release only general guidelines Thursday. Among them: Americans should have a choice of health plans and be allowed to keep their employer-sponsored plan if they wish to. It also says the plan should 'put the United States on a clear path to cover all Americans.' More details are expected next week at a White House summit on health care.Mr. Obama and his aides spent Wednesday putting the finishing touches on the budget blueprint, kicking off the process of rewriting the rules for financial regulation and initiating so-called stress tests to gauge the viability of the country's tottering banks.The budget plan will go through a rigorous congressional review before it becomes law. But, particularly in the first year of a presidency, the budge document is significant as a broad statement about the new administration's agenda. The budget document will also include an energy plan aimed at controlling carbon emissions, new funding for preschool and higher education, as well as an outline for narrowing a federal deficit that now tops $1 trillion.Mr. Obama's 10-year blueprint is also expected to contain a large number of tax increases, in addition to the one proposed to cover health care. It will mark a sharp shift from the budgets proposed by President George W. Bush, with sharply reduced tax rates across the board. Mr. Obama will propose letting Mr. Bush's tax cuts on upper-income families expire in 2011, and will propose blocking the estate tax from disappearing as scheduled under current law. He'll also propose a number of taxes on companies, one aimed at blocking companies from moving jobs overseas and others that the administration will portray as 'closing loopholes.'Laura Meckler