GOP: Charge wealthy more for Medicare to cover payroll tax extension

By Lisa Mascaro
LA Times
3:02 PM PST, November 30, 2011

As the Senate prepares to vote on extending President Obama’s payroll tax holiday, the GOP has offered an alternative proposal that would not tax millionaires to pay for it, but instead require those earning beyond $1 million to pay full price for Medicare.

Congressional Republicans have opposed the Democratic approach of paying for the tax holiday by imposing a surtax on millionaires. An expected Senate vote Thursday is likely to be blocked by a GOP-led filibuster. Failure to extend the payroll tax holiday by year’s end would hit workers with an average $1,000 tax hike on Jan. 1, a prospect both parties want to avoid.

The Senate Republican plan would instead pay for the costs by making spending cuts elsewhere in the federal budget and requiring the rich to do without government aid.

The GOP proposes freezing the salaries of federal employees and reducing the government work force – tapping proposals that have been supported by Obama and his bipartisan fiscal commission.

(More here.)