Word: breaking
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Bill Gage, who owns a corporate staffing firm in West Reading, Pa., and takes midday jogs several times a week to break up his long, stressful office hours, decided this spring to have a shower installed in his company's headquarters. Gage did not react well to the first contractor's estimate of $14,000: "I say, 'Are you nuts? I'm not paying your country-club dues, pal.' He drops the bid to $4,400." But Gage got another estimate, from his receptionist's husband, for $1,100. "He wins, and he does a super job, top notch...
...About two-thirds of nonelderly Americans get health insurance through their employers, and despite the fact that the tax break is regressive - the more expensive your employer's health-insurance plan, the bigger the break you get - very few of them would look kindly on reforming the system. With that in mind, some lawmakers have proposed capping the amount of employer-sponsored health insurance that could be provided tax-free - leaving only workers with pricey, so-called Cadillac health plans worth north of $25,000 a year subject to new taxation. But even this isn't exactly guaranteed to have...
...reportedly pivoted from taxing workers to embracing a plan to tax the insurers who offer the most expensive health-insurance plans. Doing so would generate some tax revenue - though far less than the $1 trillion-plus over 10 years that could be generated by eliminating the tax-benefit break entirely - and possibly help "bend the curve" (to borrow the wonky slogan du jour) of rising health-care costs. The theory is that high-end insurance that covers everything at little or no cost to consumers discourages those people from shopping around for less expensive care and encourages wasteful overuse...
Whalen, who said in the call that another older woman at the scene alerted her to the possible break-in, repeatedly noted that she was not sure what was happening or "if these are two individuals who actually work there [or] live there." She said that once the two men had entered the home, she looked more closely and noticed two suitcases...
...Public Perception The double blow of both the House and Senate being unlikely to pass legislation before his deadline is the worst setback Obama has seen in his six months in office. The monthlong break will give critics ample time to hone their messages of "too much, too soon" and stir up grass-roots opposition, and members of Congress will go home to hear what constituents have to say. As President Lyndon Johnson, the great master of the Senate, warned his staff after his 1964 landslide, "every day while I'm in office, I'm gonna lose votes." Some...