The White House blog definitively rebuts a false rumor:
For months, opponents of health reform have falsely claimed that the Affordable Care Act would lead to the taxation of health care benefits. The claim wasn’t true when the rumor first surfaced, it isn’t true today and it won’t be true tomorrow.
(Emphasis mine.)
Strong words. Problem is, the rumor isn’t false:
But the White House seems to have taken the rebuttal a bit far. Cutter goes on to make a general statement that suggests the new law will never tax healthcare plans, which isn’t true either. . .
While the W-2 rumors are demonstrably false, the law does create an excise tax on high-cost healthcare plans. Starting in 2018, so-called “Cadillac plans” will be subject to a 40 percent tax on excess benefits.
So the White House information operation doesn’t know what it’s talking about when it comes to their own health bill.
Amazingly, as of now (two days after the post went up), they still haven’t corrected their post, which tells you something about the priority they place on disseminating accurate information.
(Via Reason.)
Internet Scofflaw 