Paying for health care

A new analysis of three competing proposals on how to finance health care reform is out, and, thanks to a state-by-state breakdown, we can see how this financing will affect Georgians from all tax brackets.

A Citizens For Tax Justice study shows that the responsibility for footing the bill will overwhelmingly comes from the richest one percent of income earners. In Georgia, that means the proposed surtax on top income earners will leave the bottom 96 percent of Georgians without a tax increase of any kind. All the while, it focuses 99.3 percent of the increase on the top one percent.

A broadening of the Medicare Tax spreads marginal increases across the board, though the bottom 80 percent of income earners will see that increase be less than $100 per year with more than 60 percent of the revenue coming from the top one percent.

The third proposal, increased restrictions for certain tax deductions for the richest Americans, shows no increase in taxes for the bottom 80 percent of income earners in Georgia. The top one percent is responsible for a little more than 90 percent of the funding.

In the weeks to come, we're going to hear horror stories from a variety of conservative opponents of the legislation of how high your taxes will be raised. Well, to be clear, unless you make more than $1.1 million per year ... your taxes won't be raised.