-By Warner Todd Huston
Reports have emerged over the behind-closed-doors deal that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is desperately trying to make with Big Unions in order to get the waters smoothed for his Obamacare policies. These reports show where Reid’s sympathies lie: with union bosses and not with the voters.
The Hill reported that Reid made “several significant concessions” to organized labor to smooth the way for his healthcare policies.
We’ve reported in the past that Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, has been highly skeptical of Obamacare because of the punitive tax placed on so-called Cadillac healthcare plans. Trumka feels that this tax will hit his membership too hard. For several decades unions have often foregone hourly wage hikes in order to take on richer benefits the result is that union members often have more extensive healthcare plans than most American workers.
Legislation passed by the Senate Finance Committee would impose a 40 percent excise tax on family plans costing more than $21,000, a provision estimated to raise $201 billion for healthcare reform. Under heavy pressure from unions, Reid has increased the threshold so that only family plans costing $23,000 or more would be taxed, said a source familiar with the bill.
The Hill reported that Trumka “praised Reid” for “trying to lessen the impact” of the tax on cadillac healthcare plans.
Still The Hill reports that Trumka had concerns yet.
Trumka said his union would not support an “opt in/opt out” compromise on the public option but he said it was a step in the right direction.
PoliticsDaily.com went further into detail about Trumka’s heartburn over a lack of the public option making his “praise” of Reid seem less meaningful. Trumka is noted on his feelings about the “public option.”
With Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid poised to announce that the Senate version of health care reform will include a public option that would let states opt-out of the program, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said Monday that his members do not want anything less than a “robust” public option provision. “We cannot be in favor of reform for reform’s sake,” he said. “We have to make sure that reform is real and we have to be honest about that.”
Of course, the reason that Trumka wants a public option is because he and other union chiefs want to cut older member’s generous benefits and unions want the pubic option for older members to fall back upon if necessary. These cuts are wanted because union pension plans are universally in much trouble. It isn’t just the AFL-CIO finding pensions woefully underfunded, just about every union in the country is having pension troubles.
In any case, some unions are fighting Reid on his Obamacare plans. Coupled with right leaning Democrats putting pressure on Reid to dump the public option, we find that Obamacare is not on an easy road to passage.
(Cross posted at HealthcareHorseRace.com.)
____________
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as RightWingNews.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, TheRealityCheck.org, RedState.com, Human Events Magazine, AmericanDailyReview.com, and the New Media Journal, among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events and is currently the co-host of “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Conservatism” heard on BlogTalkRadio. Warner is also the editor of the Cook County Page for RedCounty.com.
He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of PubliusForum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston
Fair Use: This site may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. I am making such material available in my efforts to advance understanding of political, human rights, economic, democracy, and social justice issues, etc. I believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research, educational, or satirical purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site/blog for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.