Hank Johnson: “last night President Bush unveiled a health insurance proposal that is nothing more than a tax hike on middle-class…”

“last night President Bush unveiled a health insurance proposal that is nothing more than a tax hike on middle-class Americans. The President's plan would provide tax breaks to Americans who purchase their own medical insurance and would pay for it by taxing so-called high-priced health insurance plans. And just who is the President referring to when he talks about those supposed high-priced insurance plans? Paul Krugman of the New York Times writes, ``We're not talking about the wealthy, we're talking about ordinary workers who manage to negotiate better-than-average health plans.'' That's right. In the same year that the President is once against submitting a budget making his tax cuts permanent, tax cuts that go overwhelmingly to the richest of Americans, he is proposing to shift more of the cost of health onto working Americans. Mr. Speaker, this is not the way to solve our Nation's health care problems. This Democratic House will work and look at creative ways to reduce the number of uninsured without taxing the health care benefits of middle-class workers.”