The Wall Street Journal reports on the "new math" that transforms a massive new government spending program into a budget saver:

"Most of the bill's funding comes from $404 billion in cuts to Medicareand other government insurance programs that Democrats say will reducewaste but won't hurt recipients' benefits. An additional $201 billioncomes from a 40% excise tax on particularly generous health-insuranceplans levied on insurers. The rest comes from annual fees on insurers,medical-device makers and pharmaceutical companies, as well as a seriesof other changes to the tax treatment of health expenses."

Economist, Greg Mankiw, on the 70 percent marginal tax rates produced under the plan.

Update on Item 2:  Mankiw reports that, based on CBO data, marginal tax rates would be 24 percent for health care alone.  So why is this important?  Since marginal tax rates are the tax on each additional dollar of income, higher rates can create a variety of unintended and nasty consequences:  Non-work, non-reporting, use of deductions for things that don't necessarily add to productivity, etc. 

Let's take the extreme example.  If marginal tax rates are 100%, then I gain no value from additional income so I stop working or at least earning at that rate.  If I stop working, we lose my productivity, if I stop earning at that level, we also lose on tax revenue because we took too much (of nothing) instead of a little (of something).