White House Claims Limiting Tax Deductions under Serious Consideration

ABC News’ David Chalian reports: Dead on arrival. That’s how many members of the Senate Finance Committee treated Barack Obama’s proposal to limit itemized tax deductions for the wealthy to help pay for universal health care coverage when the president rolled out his budget last February. Today, the Obama administration claims that this proposal, the president’s preferred method to help pay for health care reform, is still being “seriously discussed” inside the Senate Finance Committee. “They’re in intense talks with each other, of course, but they have been looking at this very seriously and that is a proposal which could raise a significant amount of revenue in addition to all the savings that the President is proposing,” said Linda Douglass, the communications director for the White House Office of Health Reform. The spokeswoman for the Democratic majority on the Senate Finance Committee, Erin Shields, refused to dispute Douglass’ claim, but wouldn’t provide specifics about what is and is not being considered inside the committee’s negotiations. “That’s not what Senator Baucus has said,” Shields noted to ABC News. ”Sen. Baucus has said a lot of options are on the table and he is working with a bipartisan group to craft a package that can get passed.” When asked about current polls showing some slippage of support for the president’s handling of health care, Douglass suggested the current debate over the legislation is having a momentary impact. “You know whenever there’s noise around a piece of legislation, whenever what the public is seeing is a lot of debate and contention and disagreements, certainly from the political parties naturally, that will affect the view of the snapshot of a single poll, polls going up and polls going down,” said Douglass. “But the key here is that the American people want and need health reform. They have made that very clear as they’ve waited for the last 16 years for action and the president is determined that they’re going to get it,” she added. Douglass refused to apply the timetables and deadlines we’ve been hearing from the White House for the last several months. Instead, in line with a recent shift in rhetoric from the president and his staff, Douglass simply tried to make the case that urgent action is needed. “What he really wants is to be sure that they reach agreement on something that is built on his principles of lowering costs and you know, making available affordable coverage for every American,” Douglass said. ”But, what is urgent here and the reason we talk so much about a timetable is what’s urgent here is the need of the American people to have these health costs start to drop down,” she added. You can watch the entire interview below, including Douglass’ discussion of the president’s willingness to look at a plan that would tax the health benefits on some gold-plated or “Cadillac” plans in which some upper income Americans are enrolled. Watch the interview HERE. Republican strategist Ron Bonjean also joined us “Top Line” today and suggested that the outside interest groups, on both sides of the healthcare debate, are warming up to launch a campaign blitz during the August recess when members of Congress are back home and hearing directly from their constituents. Watch the interview HERE: