Alec Baldwin, award winning actor and wannabe leftist political commentator, called on Congress to sink congressional health care legislation today, saying he would rather the federal government "Put a Major Oil Company Out of Business," according to the headline of his column at the Huffington Post.
Baldwin isn't the only liberal entertainer calling for the death of ObamaCare. Plans to tax so-called "Cadillac" health care plans--or the most expensive insurance plans--have riled up some key Democratic supporters. The Teamsters Union and the AFL-CIO have protested, but now objections are also being raised by Hollywood's biggest unions.
The Los Angeles Times reported yesterday that the "generally cozy relationship between Hollywood's unions and the Obama administration is coming under strain." The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists recently sent a letter to President Obama and congressional leaders pleading with them to drop the Cadillac tax. According to the Times, the Screen Actors Guild, the largest union of actors, is expected to take a similar stance on the legislation.
The AFTRA said the Cadillac tax would "hurt middle-class and low-wage working union members," even though it would only be levied on plans costing more than $8,500 per year. Indeed, the New York Times quoted an anonymous "industry official," who said "we don't have Cadillac plans, we have Bentleys."
The NY Times noted that in private discussions, AFTRA members "expressed sentiments as varied as outrage, bewilderment and resignation at the insistence that health care of the kind they enjoy should be taxed." The kind they enjoy, of course, is the best kind--the plans provide "some of the best health care benefits available to anyone."
It seems that Hollywood is 100 percent behind Obama…until the glitterati find out they are the ones who will have to pay for some of his more grandiose plans. The thought of having to relinquish some of the lavish benefits they enjoy may be enough to sap Hollywood support for ObamaCare. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka warned that union members might boycott the midterm elections if the Cadillac tax is not dropped from the bill. Maybe Hollywood will cease its endless shilling for the nation's most liberal lawmakers if the Hollywood elite are forced to foot the bill.
