Contributed by Cary Briel

When I first moved to Skaneateles, I talked for a while to the lawyer for the seller of our house in the front yard, mainly about the Skaneateles area, and I remember that he joked with me that he was the sole Democrat in Skaneateles to show up for Democratic primaries. At the time, I just laughed, and said “I’ll bet!”  That was almost 20 years ago.  Interestingly, John McCain has set forth a health plan that may effectively tax health benefits for some workers, primarily those with high incomes and/or expensive health plans.  This would seem to apply to many people in Skaneateles, hitting them right in the pocket book, right at a time when expenses are soaring for fuel, food, and many other necessities.  Here’s a video of Joe Biden discussing McCain’s plans to treat certain health insurance premiums as taxable income if he’s elected, possibly making the plan the largest tax increase on middle-class tax payers in American history. You can read more about it in this New York Times article.  The article also describes how John McCain has advocated the “free market approach” (read: deregulation) as the approach to make health insurance more affordable.