The poverty tax
It has been estimated 50 million Americans do not have health insurance. Presumably, the vast majority can’t afford it. The U.S. Senate’s solution is to fine each of these people $1,000.
(Next, we can fine each homeless person $1,000 for not paying rent.)
The Congressional Budget Office estimates the fines will raise $36 billion over 10 years. That $36 billion requires 36 million people to remain uninsured. In short, the Senate expects the program to fail!
Supposedly, the government would provide subsidies for poor and “some” middle-class families. Of course, that will require a complex series of definitions for “poor,” remembering how cost of living varies markedly around the country. A New Yorker earning $30 thousand might be poor, while half that income might do very nicely in, say, Alabama. Then there is the question of how to count dependents - children and adults.
( Next, we can fine each starving person for not buying enough food.)
And if families are forced to spend money on health insurance, will they be precluded from sending their kids to college? Ah, that pesky law of unintended consequences.
If the government can subsidize the poor and “some” middle-class, why not merely subsidize them and forget about the ridiculous tax on poverty?
This all is a perfect example of why the government is excellent at supplying money, but truly stupid at running anything.
Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Wilmette, Ill.
Only a Socialist Democrat can come up with these things. Liberalism is a Mental Disease and they prove it daily! What a joke! However, you think you have heard it all and they continually outdo themselves every time!
Being compassionate, empathic, and artistic is a mental disease. I don’t think so. Neither do I believe that being wholesome, ethical, and hard working are signs of an illness either. We have in our society forces that pull to the right and the left. Most of us fall much closer to the middle than that if the extremest don’t wish to be marginalized then they should learn cooperation. .
You can’t fix stupid but our elected politicians try to legislate it daily.
Rodger,
Politicians have a solution for everything. Whether it’s the right solution is another issue altogether.
Maybe there really are 50 million uninsured, but a recent story here in the Post claimed that a fair prcentage of these same people made more than $50,000/year, and a number made more than $75,000/year. Another substantial group are illegal aliens. I don’t object to helping those in need, but deadbeats I’m not that accepting of. And the governments of countries like Mexico need to make their responsibilities to their citizens a priority instead of wallowing in corruption.
What we need right away is a growing economy that puts people back to work and gives them access to health insurance. Instead, we’re getting crushing government debt that threatens the prosperity of all of us.
mercidiot, the PD never ran any such “article” about the uninsured. Some yapper like you spewed that lying vomitus and likewise you regurgitate the same lies.
“NO!” is not a policy, the voters rejected that and the GOP in 2008, and will again in 2010 and 2012!
The Democrats are serious about healthcare reform and as long as you yappers just say “NO!” you’ll keep losing, as you deserve.
Tim Hogan, you are mainly correct in your assessment of the GOP as a corrupt, incompetent, unprincipled political group. Your Great Society Democrat Party now dominates the federal government. The time for hyperbole and neo-Marxist dogma is over. The Republican Party is no longer relevant.
Now it is time for government worshipers to demonstrate that you can wield the awesome powers of government for the betterment of our society in a fair and effective manner. Show us the value of your faith in government over faith in free U.S. citizens. Show us the improvement in our daily lives and children’s futures that Democrat government will bestow.
You asked for it. You’ve got it. Put up or shut up.
Thoughts for the day-
1) I thought Democrats hated “trickle down” economics yet their so-called stimulus bill is really just trickle down economics from the government.
2) Bush inherited a recession and cut taxes while Ombama and company increased spending. If only we had a nonpartisan press, we could find out which solution worked the best.
“If only we had a nonpartisan press, we could find out which solution worked the best.”-Shtaven-
–We can do that without the press.
–Those who don’t learn the mistakes of history are doomed to repeat them.
–This administration, either never learned their history, and are doomed for failure, OR…
…as I think, they are doing EXACTLY what they mean to, and are purposefully bringing us down to a third-world paradigm. One in which he wants, [and is behind the scenes finagling] to be “king” for life.
–Always blew those “one-worlders” and “Bildeberger-conspiracists” off as out there. Maybe they had something all along.
dr-d… My analogy would be slightly different. I think Obama and his supporters see Washington DC as Mecca and Obama as the Ayatollah for the theocratic new order. Anyone not subjecting themselves to his divine guidance is scorned as an infidel and a threat to his teachings. Hence the attacks on any intellectual, economic, personal, or spiritual variance from the worship of government and collectivist ideals. His culture warriors call themselves atheists while preaching the gospel of government. Theirs is just another of the many religious tyrannies throughout history that have used control over weak minds to achieve power.
A#,
–Either way, the big picture will out, and even the most “weak-minded” will have to admit the truth. [with the possible exception of bean and garrison].
–How much damage will be done in the meantime?
–And who is out there who can counter such liberal dominance?[executive/legislative/judicial/press-corps/movies/television]
–All we have is internet and radio, and radio is the next target, {fairness-doctrine].