The Medical Freedom Channel

“Caught between his support for expanded health coverage and his opposition to tax increases, Governor Mitt Romney is being urged by fiscal conservatives to veto part of a sweeping healthcare proposal because they say it includes a tax on businesses. Grover Norquist — an influential antitax advocate who is president of Americans for Tax Reform, based in Washington, D.C. — called on Romney yesterday to resist a proposal to continue an assessment on businesses that the state charges to help finance the free-care pool used to reimburse hospitals. The healthcare plan, written by the Democrat-dominated Legislature, would keep the current $62 per employee assessment and add a $295 per employee assessment on certain companies that do not provide health coverage for their workers. ‘I hope we can avoid the Democratic desire to turn this into a tax increase,’ said Norquist, who is often described as an architect of President Bush’s massive federal tax cuts.” [editor’s note: As usual, Grover’s insistence that it is only Dems who inflate budgets just undercuts his validity. - SAT] (03/17/06)