WASHINGTON — Labor leaders irate over a proposed tax on high-value health insurance plans met Monday with President Barack Obama to express frustration over his support for the levy. Some labor officials have warned Democrats of political fallout for backing the tax.
The president of the AFL-CIO, Richard Trumka, said there was a frank discussion at the nearly two-hour White House meeting with about a dozen heads of the country’s biggest labor unions.
Earlier in the day, Trumka warned that Democrats risk catastrophic election defeats similar to 1994 if they fail to come up with a health bill labor likes.
“A bad bill could have that kind of effect. People could stay home. It could suppress votes,” Trumka said.
Trumka made his remarks before delivering a speech in which he bashed the tax proposal in the Senate’s health overhaul bill, contending that it “drives a wedge between the middle class and the poor.”
Trumka stopped short of saying labor would actively oppose the bill if it included the tax. He said health care reform “is too important for us to get this close and then say we quit.”
Obama supports the tax on what he calls “Cadillac” health insurance plans, arguing it’s a way to control spending on health care services, one of his goals for health care overhaul.
Trumka and other labor leaders strongly prefer the approach taken in the House health care bill: an income tax increase on individuals earning over $500,000 a year and households earning over $1 million.
