President Calls for Millionaires and Corporations to Pay Fair Share of Taxes

Washington, D.C. – Health Care for America Now (HCAN), the nationwide coalition that led the successful fight for health reform, released the following statement from HCAN Executive Director Ethan Rome on President Obama’s deficit-reduction proposal:

“President Obama defended seniors, families, children and people with disabilities from the Republicans’ plan to do away with Medicare and Medicaid, the programs that protect the health and financial security of more than 100 million Americans. The President rejected the Republican Party’s efforts to declare a permanent federal tax holiday for the wealthy and big corporations. And he said no to the GOP’s plan to pay for tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires by euthanizing Medicare and Medicaid.

“The President today offered an alternative to the extremist plan from the Republicans, who want to give $4.2 trillion in tax cuts to the richest people and companies while putting seniors at the mercy of private health insurance companies. The Republican plan would shift $6,400 of health costs to each senior on Day One. At the same time, private insurers would reap billions of taxpayer dollars from subsidies for providing seniors with shoddy health plans.

“The Republicans don’t believe in shared sacrifice. Their plan is an assault on the middle class that gives away billions of dollars in new tax breaks to the wealthy and to big corporations in return for making the American Dream unachievable for most of the rest of us. It would rob future generations of the opportunity to do better than their parents and to share in the prosperity of a great nation. In stark contrast to the Republicans’ proposal, the President wants wealthy Americans to contribute their fair share of taxes to support the crucial health programs that protect seniors and hard-working families from financial disaster.”

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Health Care for America Now is a national grassroots coalition of more than 1,000 organizations in 46 states representing 30 million people. HCAN led the fight over the past two years to win passage of health reform and to keep Congress from being steamrolled by corporate special interests.