A few thoughts on the House Democrats’ still-evolving plan to pay for close to half of health reform by raising marginal rates on the highest earning taxpayers: *By allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire, restoring the phase-outs of the personal exemption (PEP) and itemized deductions (Pease), and now by proposing a ‘surcharge” of 2 percent or more, Democrats would be boosting the top individual tax rate from the Bush-era 35 percent to nearly 45 percent, ever-closer to the 50 percent top rate of 1985.    more »