Biden to seek Medicare tax hike on wealthy Americans

President Biden will seek to hike taxes on the wealthy and advocate for additional drug price negotiations to keep Medicare funded through at least 2050, the White House said Tuesday. 

Biden will propose a tax increase from 3.8% to 5% on earned and unearned income above $400,000 as part of a package aimed at extending the solvency of Medicare’s Hospital Insurance Trust Fund by at least 25 years, according to a White House statement. 

“Let’s ask the wealthiest to pay just a little bit more of their fair share, to strengthen Medicare for everyone over the long term,” Biden wrote separately in a New York Times guest essay.

Biden has sought to link Republicans to the idea of cutting funding for the insurance program for seniors and the disabled as part of negotiations over increasing the US’ $31.4 trillion debt limit.

The Democrat has pledged to offer his vision for funding Medicare and challenged Republicans to offer their own.

Biden is scheduled to unveil his budget on Thursday, including a speech in Philadelphia to highlight his plan.

But Republicans, who won control of the House in the 2022 midterm elections, are almost certain to reject Biden’s proposals, according to The New York Times. 

The tax increase also echoed the president’s plan to revive the so-called “billionaire’s tax” during his State of the Union address on Feb. 7.

Forecasters have warned that a key Medicare trust fund program will face automatic federal cuts within five years because it is spending more money than it is bringing in, raising concerns over medical providers refusing care to senior citizens. 

The president first brought up the plan to tax wealthy Americans in March 2022 but it was scrapped by senators in his own party to pass the Inflation Reduction Act.

The plan was previously slammed by Tesla and Twitter’s CEO Elon Musk, The Post reported, saying on Twitter that “they run out of other people’s money and then they come for you.”

The passed IRA by Congress authorizes Medicare to negotiate prices for high-cost drugs, and the proposed budget would allow Medicare to negotiate prices for more drugs and at an earlier stage after launch, saving $200 billion over 10 years, according to the White House.

With Post wires