Ah, So It's a Voluntary Tax!

House Democrats, seeking charitable contributions from the "wealthiest Americans" to pay for universal health care. But not really.

The lead sentence to Saturday's front-page story by David Herszenhorn, "Leaders In House Seek To Tax Rich For Health Plan."



House Democrats will ask the wealthiest Americans to help pay for overhauling the health care system with a $550 billion income tax increase, the chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee said Friday.



Does that mean those wealthy Americans will be free to say, "No thank you?" to the Democrats' kind offer? Um, not likely.