O'Reilly Factor guest host Monica Crowley fawned over guest Scooter Libby and expressed her outrage over how he was treated during the Valerie Plame trial.
House Panel Passes Tax Increase for Health Plan Posted on 7/17/2009
The House Ways and Means Committee has passed legislation to revamp health care.
The committee approved tax increases on the wealthy to help pay for the plan.
23 to 18 Vote The committee voted 23 to 18 to approve the bill.
Three Democrats joined all committee Republicans in voting against the bill.
$544 Billion More Taxes for Wealthy Over the next decade, the bill would impose $544 billion in new taxes on families making more than $350,000.
The vote came early Friday, more than 16 hours after members started debating dozens of Republican amendments that were ultimately rejected.
Republicans Complain Republicans complained that the bill would hurt small business owners who pay business taxes on their individual returns.
Democrats Respond Democrats say the tax increases will affect only 4.1 percent of tax filers who report small business income.
Bush Tax Cuts $715 Billion Over the ten year window from 2001-2010, the Bush tax cuts gave the richest 1 percent of Americans about $715 billion in tax breaks.
This comes out to about $518,000 per household over ten years or about $51,800 per year.
The proposed healthcare surtax, meanwhile, would raise $544 billion from households making more than $350,000 per year.
Doctors Support House Plan The American Medical Association, which helped torpedo the Clinton administration's effort to revamp the nation's healthcare system 15 years ago, endorsed the House Democrats' health bill on Thursday.
Obama Comments President Obama touted the physician group's move, saying "these doctors are joining the chorus of Americans who know that the time to reform what is broken about the healthcare system is now."
Rep. Dingell Comments Rep. John Dingell, D-MI, who is the main sponsor of the health bill, said, "AMA's support should not be underestimated."
Dingell said, "Quite honestly, it has been difficult to win the support of this organization going all the way back to the 1930s."
