Democrats look to higher taxes to pay for health care
It’s been fairly obvious from the start that one of President Obama’s main priorities would be health care. He has stated more than once that we need a national health care system and is pushing for a health care bill to be on his desk by the end of 2009. I have written earlier about the first draft of the legislation that is being worked on by Senator Edward Kennedy and how I was not encouraged by the start they had made.
One of the questions I raised in that article was about how employers were going to be required to offer health care coverage to their employees. I believe it would be a mistake to force them into that situation. Another question that I did not cover so much is a question that is now being discussed by House Democrats; exactly how is our country going to pay for the expanded health care coverage they are wanting to provide. I’ll give you one guess. Yes, that’s right. They want to raise taxes and create more taxes on top of that.
If this wasn’t so serious, it would be almost funny to see the way they are trying to figure out where they can get the money. The Associated Press has obtained a list of the options that are being considered by the House Ways and Means Committee. They include:
- Increasing the price of soda and other sugary drinks by 10 cents a can.
- Applying a potential 2 percent income tax increase to single taxpayers earning more than $200,000 a year and households earning more than $250,000.
- A new employer payroll tax could target 3 percent of employers’ health care expenditures.
- Taxing employer-provided health insurance benefits above certain levels – a less likely option but one that still is in the running.
Also under consideration are higher alcohol taxes, increases to the Medicare payroll tax and a value-added tax, a sort of national sales tax, of up to 1.5 percent or more.
It never ceases to amaze me at how some of our legislators can come up with ways to take more of our money. Does anyone else see a problem with doing this? Do the men and women in Congress have the right to arbitrarily raise taxes on an item, just because they want to pay for something else?
The Democrats in the House of Representatives are scheduled to release a draft of the legislation they are working on today. While I do not pretend to understand how this is all going to work, I do object to the main premise of the bill. Everyone will be forced to purchase health care coverage and employers will be forced to offer coverage to their employees.
Yes, I understand the health care system needs to be changed, but is forcing us all to purchase coverage the answer? I make more money now than I have ever made in my adult life, but I can not afford to purchase coverage for my wife. I have been questioned as to why I do not purchase coverage and my answer is this. I would have to take out a night job, just to pay for the coverage. It’s not that I am lazy, but I already work between 10-12 hours through the week and believe it or not, I have to sleep sometime.
Does anyone remember what has happened to the automobile insurance rates since we were all forced to purchase coverage for our automobiles? The rates have skyrocketed, with insurance companies using any criteria they can to raise the rates further. Excuse me, but your credit rating has nothing to do at all with your driving record. What do you think is going to happen to health care rates when everyone is forced to buy the coverage? If you really believe they will actually go down and become more manageable, then you have more faith in the system than do I.
I realize I may sound overly skeptical about how all of this is going to play out, but I find it very discouraging to see our legislators in Washington so willing to spend our money. Not only that, but when they run out of our money, they are more than willing to come up with new ways to take more of it away. How many trillions of dollars does our federal government have to spend before someone stands up and says enough is enough? I think it is high time for someone to put the brakes on this tax and spend mentality that has taken over Washington.
You hit the nail on the head this time, Larry. Enough is enough! If our congressmen and senators are so concerned, why don’t they give up some of their pay? They should think of their constituents more than seeing how they can remain in power for another term.
I certainly don’t want the kind of health care some other countries have to endure. It’ seems like the president is more concerned about making everyone equal (except government officials) than leading us into more greatness.
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There have been a lot of general comments on this and other posts about the power-hungry, self-interested, and corrupt politicians in Washington (and in our state capitals?). My experience suggests otherwise. In fact, I’d venture to say that most readers believe their own congressmen and senators are actually honest, hard-working, voices of the people — it’s all the OTHER legislators who are screwing things up. Certainly I’ve heard only great praise for Dr. Tom Coburn from the Oklahoma contingent. I believe most politicians go to Washington as honest representatives and certainly they have little power or influence when first they get there….very much the “Mr Smith Goes to Washington” scenario. Unfortunately, the power structure is such that if you want to accomplish anything you need to toe the party line or the powers that be will never allow your local initiatives to see the light of day. To me this all argues for term limits — 2-3 terms for senators and 4-5 terms for congressmen. Frankly, I’d also extend congressional terms to 3 years so we can reduce the outrageous amounts of money spent on races every 2 years and allow our representatives to breathe and work before they start immediately raising money for the next election.
Mike,
Yes, we generally have good things to say about Dr. Coburn here in Oklahoma. Most of us believe he has been and will continue to be a great Senator.
I do agree that we should have term limits for Senators and members of the House. Some of them have certainly been in Washington for entirely too long.
My main problem with the way this thing is going down is how they are casting around for new and higher taxes for the American people. I understand our health care system needs to be reworked and that reworking will have to be paid for, but it just gets old to see they contnually have their hands in our pockets.