Claiming that the District of Columbia's ObamaCare exchange is just too darn small in size to pay for itself, Mayor Vince Gray (D) is proposing the city council "approve legislation granting the District's exchange board broad new power to tax any health-related insurance product sold in the city -- regardless of whether it's offered on the exchange," Washington Post staffer Aaron Davis reported this morning.
"If Gray and exchange officials get their way," Davis noted, a new "1 percent tax on more than $250 million in insurance premiums paid annually" by D.C. resident. Of course, Davis's story was buried on page four of the Metro section and slapped with a snoozer of a headline, "Council to vote on new tax power for health exchange,"* rather than something which would arrest the readers attention like say, "Mayor calls for new tax on health plans."
What's more, while Davis does cite critics of the idea in his story, he only turns to detractors from the insurance industry, not everyday folks on the street or politicians who might be critical of the idea as the costs of the tax will invariably be passed on to the consumer.
Instead, Davis closed his story with the supportive words of council member Yvette Alexander (D-Ward 7), who argued that "[o]verall... everyone benefits" since, after all, the insurance industry is "making a lot of money" and "no one is feeling sorry for [them]."
Granted, this is the District of Columbia and there are exactly ZERO Republicans on the City Council, but surely Davis could have found some Republican or Libertarian Party critic of the tax hike.
This proves once again that the Washington Post is a paper of record for the District's residents only insofar as it records the sentiments of the city's liberal elite.
*the WashingtonPost.com headline for the story is different, "D.C. Council to vote on broad new tax on insurance to cover city’s health care exchange"
