Here is the article from the LA Times. Medicare Taxes are currently applied only to “earned income”. This proposal would apply the Medicare Tax to “unearned income”, things like Dividends, Capital Gains, Interest Earned, etc.
This expansion of the Medicare Tax would primarily hit two groups: the affluent and Seniors. Seniors are largely exempted from paying Medicare tax, unless they are actively employed. Seniors tend to have a much higher percentage of “unearned income” to finance their retirement.
I talked about the “double counting” issue before in terms of cutting Medicare and raising Medicare taxes to fund other programs. By transferring the money from the Medicare Trust Fund to the General Fund and spending “Medicare Money” on new programs, the Federal Government is obligating itself to repay the Medicare Trust Fund at some point. It seems to me that if you’re looking to raise money for a new program, the tax should be a general tax and not a “Medicare” tax.
lol!
Seniors, we, are already being taxed on our social security income ( a second time), first time we paid the tax to get the benefit, now we are taxed again on its income. Taxing income from IRA’s is already included as is a tax on annuity income and dividend income, non qualified LTCi is also taxed. what’s left? Soon we’ll all be applying for Medicaid!