Over the weekend, there was some discussion of whether taxing employer-provided health benefits should be considered but that idea does not seem to be terribly popular. The Associated Press reports,

Lawmakers and administration officials onSunday distanced themselves from the idea of taxing health benefits tohelp pay President Barack Obama's health care overhaul and bickeredover whether government insurance would strengthen the market.

Thedebate over a government insurance plan has broken mainly along partylines. But Democrats and Republicans appearing on Sunday's TV newsprograms either rejected or offered no support for raising revenues onsome people through a tax on health benefits. Obama has not supportedthe idea, but has said it should be considered along with otherproposals.

VicePresident Joe Biden said that administration doesn't want to tax healthcare benefits even though the proposal should be on the table. Sen.Chris Dodd, D-Conn., called taxing health benefits a "bad idea" as wellas unnecessary.The Senate Finance Committee is expected toconsider a tax on workers whose family health coverage costs $15,000 ayear or more in premiums paid by employer and employee combined. .  .  .

Republicansare reluctant to use the government to drastically change the healthcare system. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky saidlawmakers should focus on making the existing health care system workbetter and predicted that Obama's plan would result in massivegovernment controls."We know that if the government gets in this business, pretty soon nobody else will be in the business," McConnell said.

Billsin the House and Senate would require people to purchase healthinsurance if they could afford it, a proposal that Sen. Chuck Grassley,R-Iowa, said is more likely to draw bipartisan congressional supportthan mandating coverage through employers.