AT&T to cut employee benefits due to $1B tax increase.

[Final-Fan]

TheRealMafoo said:

Final-Fan said:
Well, in this case I think it would be more appropriate to call it "tax reform", but that's a fair point. As long as you're willing to take the position that the government should look the other way while it's getting robbed blind for as long as the economy isn't doing well.

I am not sure I would call it "robbed". The best way to look at it, was instead of getting a $1,330 subsidy to offset the cost of proscription drugs for retiree's, they were getting around $2,000 (up to that, they only get the funds If they use them).

I am not a fan of the subsidy in the first place, but I would do something like phase it out at 10% over 10 years, and not even look at doing that until the economy recovers.

But this is really what this government wants. In there perfect world, everyone would be on a government run healthcare program. This bill was the first step to get us there.

I talked with my father tonight to see how he is doing. He has prostate cancer, and just underwent targeted radiation treatment. He lives in Albuquerque, NM. He told me that in Albuquerque, there are two machines that do this kind of thing. The same number they have in all of Canada.

I just hope when I get his age, I don't have the same problem.

From what I understand, the way the law was written, things were going like this: 
Gov. gives AT&T $50 to help buy drugs.
AT&T buys drugs with their money and the $50.
AT&T goes to the IRS and gets $25 more for no reason. 
(numbers proportional to what you just said)

I mean, we can put it any way you like but at the end of the day companies were getting money that was not intended to be given to the tune of billions of dollars (if closing the loophole cost AT&T alone a billion).  I don't think it's valid to look at it as simply a bigger subsidy because that tax refund wasn't being allocated to drugs in particular AFAIK. 

Sorry to hear about your dad. 
... what machines are those exactly?