Associated Press
Erica Werner
June 19th, 2009

“House Democrats have lots of potential targets for higher taxes as they aim to expand health care coverage, from wealthy Americans and the nation’s employers to anyone who pops the top on a soft drink.

Also under consideration are higher alcohol taxes, increases to the Medicare payroll tax and a value-added tax, a sort of national sales tax, of up to 1.5 percent or more.

The list of options being weighed by the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, and obtained Thursday by The Associated Press, aims to raise some $600 billion over 10 years to partially pay for President Barack Obama’s goal of overhauling the nation’s health care system to tame costs and cover the 50 million uninsured. The final price tag for that effort could top $1 trillion, with cuts to Medicare and Medicaid covering the rest of the cost.

The tax options include:

Increasing the price of soda and other sugary drinks by 10 cents a can.

Applying a potential 2 percent income tax increase to single taxpayers earning more than $200,000 a year and households earning more than $250,000.

A new employer payroll tax could target 3 percent of employers’ health care expenditures.

Taxing employer-provided health insurance benefits above certain levels — a less likely option but one that still is in the running.”

Read More Here