On the other hand, that’s an example of government spending I wouldn’t mind seeing more of. A <em>lot</em> more.

Here’s Ezra Klein, on the Stupak amendment that: forbade the health care “reform” bill from subsidizing abortions, and; helped the health care “reform” bill pass the House.

Rep. Bart Stupak’s amendment did not make abortion illegal. And it did not block the federal government from subsidizing abortion. All it did was block it from subsidizing abortion for poorer women.

Stupak’s amendment stated that the public option cannot provide abortion coverage, and that no insurer participating on the exchange can provide abortion coverage to anyone receiving subsidies. But as Rep. Jim Cooper points out in the interview below, the biggest federal subsidy for private insurance coverage is untouched by Stupak’s amendment. It’s the $250 billion the government spends each year making employer-sponsored health-care insurance tax-free.

Got that? If the government doesn’t tax it, the government is spending on it. In Wisconsin, groceries are exempt from the sales tax. According to Klein, therefore, Wisconsin’s state government is subsidizing your dinner.

See, anything your employer provides to you as compensation for work performed is income, whether it’s monetary or not. Unless it’s exempted by law, you have to pay taxes on it.

Health insurance is one of those exempted things. If your employer provides you with health insurance, you don’t have to report it. You don‘t have to pay taxes on it.

You’ve got to love Klein’s logic, or what passes for it. It’s no longer “how will the government pay for this tax cut?” Now it’s “if it’s not taxed, the government is paying for it!” Like they have to write a check or something.

But that’s Klein’s position and, I dare say, a relative summation of the liberal, “progressive” world view: when the government isn’t sticking its fingers into something, the government is unfairly influencing that thing. They’re mucking it all up just by letting it be.

These people are in charge, folks.

Via Memeorandum.