Members of a Bush administration tax reform council are suggesting that the government pay for a cut in the alternative minimum tax by taxing employer-sponsored health coverage.[@@]
Bush administration officials have always emphasized the high cost of the exemption for employer expenditures on group health insurance.
Now the President’s Advisory Panel on Tax Reform, a body led by Connie Mack, a former Republican senator from Florida, and John Breaux, a former Democratic senator from Louisiana, is considering the idea of recommending that the government cap the exemption for compensation spent on health coverage. Members of the panel talked today at a hearing in Washington about the possibility of setting the cap at $11,000.