Tax News

CCH (cch.taxgroup.com) reports:

  House leaders expect to unveil their massive health care reform bill on July 14, according to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who noted that Democratic leaders are still meeting to determine ways to pay for the overhaul. Pelosi and House Majority Whip James E. Clyburn, D-S.C., told reporters that leaders are working out the specifics of the health care reform bill with members of the Democratic caucus. Pelosi said GOP lawmakers would get a chance to amend the legislation during the bill's markup before the House Ways and Means Committee. Pelosi called a press conference to tout components of the health care reform bill, such as eliminating restrictions due to pre-existing conditions, controlling health cost inflation, setting standard benefit options offered through a health exchange market and capping out-of-pocket expenses.

  Clyburn said the legislative process has included six listening sessions for Democrats from different regions of the county to explain how the bill will affect different markets. Pelosi acknowledged that the legislation will require a tax increase in order to show that it is budget neutral for Congressional Budget Office scoring; it will likely achieve enough savings to allow any tax increases to be used for deficit reduction.

  Speaking on NBC's "Meet the Press" program on July 12, Senate Finance Committee member Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., said both Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate have ruled out the possibility of taxing benefits to offset the cost of reform. Schumer said lawmakers are hoping to agree on a plan by July 17 but he declined to give specifics about what lawmakers are suggesting. He said the first option is to cut costs to pay for health reform, and then raise revenues to make up the difference.

  In a July 9 letter to Pelosi and House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer, D-Md., the House Blue Dog Coalition laid out its group of principles that it must see in order to support health care reform legislation. Forty members of the group signed the letter promising to vote against the measure unless it is budget neutral. They suggested that House leaders scale back the bill in order to craft more affordable legislation, and that leaders look for ways to find savings within the health care delivery system.

White House

  On health care reform legislation, President Obama said he has "no illusions" that it will be easy to reach the finish line but he maintained "we are going to get this done." The president, at a White House announcement of his U.S. Surgeon General nominee on July 13, said that "inaction is not an option" and would create the biggest health care crisis of all.

  According to a White House spokesman, the president remains confident that a health care bill will reach his desk in 2009. However, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs seemed to be less certain Congress that would finish work on both the House and Senate bills before the August recess. At a July 13 press briefing, Gibbs added that the president would consider asking the Senate to stay in session if it did not make sufficient progress by its scheduled recess on August 7.

  On the contentious issue of cost, Obama maintained that the reform plan would not add to the deficit in the long-term and would eventually lower the deficit by slowing the rising cost of Medicare and Medicaid.

  By Stephen K. Cooper and Paula Cruickshank, CCH News Staff