Sunday, March 15, 2009

Was There Ever Any Doubt?

I was one of the skeptics who could never accept the Messiah's blanket pronouncement of a tax cut for 95% of the people. It was ludicrous on its face. If more than 40% of Americans already pay zero federal income tax, you really can't cut zero any smaller. If you cut their payroll tax (Social Security deduction) you then aren't requiring people to subsidize their own retirement. You simply can't do it.

So, this comes as no great surprise:

Tax Increase Takes Back Any Cuts

Everyone seems to believe in the free lunch these days. They absolutely salivate when the Messiah promises affordable health care for everyone. They stand slack-jawed and point at Medicare as being the model, but they ignore the reality that every worker in the nations pays into Medicare and only those over 65 years old, get the coverage. Expanding Medicare to all Americans would mean that rather than having the many subsidize the few we would actually have to have everyone pay their own health insurance premiums. Few would want to do that.

So, where does the money come from? Here the administration has finally come clean. Taxing your health care benefits at work as "income" means you will take home less money. You get less for your labor, but your employer still pays the wage. You both lose. Obvious result is that health care benefits are either drastically reduced or eliminated as an employer provided benefit. You go shopping as an individual and probably pay more for less.

We now see part of the big picture. President Obama takes away a lot more than he gives, but don't expect him to admit your pocket has been picked for the good of the masses. He fully expects you not to notice.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

"Expanding Medicare to all Americans would mean that rather than having the many subsidize the few we would actually have to have everyone pay their own health insurance premiums. Few would want to do that."

No, it means that the 60% of Americans that pay taxes at all would have to not only pay their own premiums, but also those of the 40% who don't pay any taxes at all. The percentages might be off, but you get my drift.