Proponents of Question 1 want to close a “tax loophole” to fund “universal” home health care. Yet there is no tax loophole to close.

Proponents of Question 1 should study high school civics again. Federal law, not state law, caps Social Security/Old Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance contributions on those earning wages over $128,000 or so. There is no similar cap on Medicare contributions.

As proponents of Question 1 necessarily concede, neither Social Security/OASDI nor Medicare covers home health care or nursing home services. Rather, proponents of Question 1 seek to impose a new state tax, with a concomitant stakeholders’ bureaucracy, on some Mainers, claiming that higher wage earners should “pay their fair share.”

There is no fairness to a system that requires a small percentage of Mainers to pay for “universal” home health care services for which a majority of recipients have contributed – and will contribute – nothing.

John Edwards

Falmouth


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