New Labor Ads Focus On Health Benefits Tax

"Much of the TV advertising on health care so far has focused on the controversial public, or government-run insurance program that Democrats say would compete with private insurers and Republicans say would drive them out of business," but the Laborers" International Union of North America "will begin airing ads in two states Tuesday that deal with an equally explosive issue: Taxing health benefits," USA Today reports. The union will "run the ads at least through Thursday in North Dakota and Montana," home states of "the two most important senators on the issue, Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., and Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D." The ads reveal the "fine line labor is walking" on health care: "The ads first praise Congress for taking up the health care debate but then criticize an idea that could be included in one draft of the legislation to tax health care premiums" (Fritze, 6/29).