Why doesn't the gazette do some real research, with facts and figures from reputable source, b4 they come out and endorse a plan that just happens to favor their liberal views and become a real news paper.
Why doesn't the gazette do some real research, with facts and figures from reputable source, b4 they come out and endorse a plan that just happens to favor their liberal views and become a real news paper.
Tax the rich? That's the plan Top earners would fund Obama's health proposal
By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER, Associated Press First published in print: Monday, July 20, 2009
WASHINGTON -- It's probably never a bad time to be rich. But the good times for America's wealthy could soon be a little less so.
President Barack Obama wants to boost income taxes for the wealthy to pay for tax cuts for everybody else. He wants to limit the deductions that high-income families take for mortgage interest and charity contributions to help pay for providing more people with health insurance.
House Democrats are planning to hit the wealthy with even higher income taxes to pay for their version of a health care overhaul.
Between the plans, a family of four with an income of $5 million a year would see its annual income taxes skyrocket by more than $440,000. A similar family making $800,000 a year would get a tax increase of $30,000, according to an analysis by the financial services firm Deloitte Tax.
"I still think being wealthy is better than being poor," Clint Stretch, who heads tax policy at Deloitte Tax, said with a touch of understatement. "But this is a pretty high proposed tax burden."
Taxing the rich to pay for health insurance would represent a significant departure from the way Americans have financed safety net programs in the past.
Both Social Security and Medicare are supported by broad-based payroll taxes. Although the rich pay more -- they have bigger incomes -- the burden is shared by the middle class and even the working poor.
By contrast, the health care plan working its way through the House would impose $544 billion in new taxes over the next decade on just 1.2 percent of households -- joint filers making more than $350,000 a year.
The bill would impose a new 5.4 percent income surtax on couples making more than $1 million a year, starting in 2011. Couples making more than $350,000 would have to pay a surtax of 1 percent and those making more than $500,000 would pay a 1.5 percent surtax.
For a family of four making $450,000 a year, the initial tax increase would be $1,000, according to the Deloitte analysis. But for the super-rich, like a single filer making $5 million a year, the tax increase would be $452,000. The analysis assumes a typical mix of earned income, capital gains and itemized deductions for each income level.
Democrats said that for most of the affected taxpayers, the surtax would be far smaller.
"What we're talking about is frankly very, very small amounts for the overwhelming majority of people who will pay it," said Rep. Artur Davis, D-Ala.
The top marginal income tax rate now is 35 percent, on income above $372,950. Obama wants to boost the top rate to 39.6 percent in 2011 by allowing some of the tax cuts enacted under former President George W. Bush to expire.
On Friday, Democrats moved one step closer to giving free health insurance to the nation’s estimated 12 million illegal aliens when they successfully defeated a Republican-backed amendment, offered by Rep. Dean Heller, R-Nev., that would have prevented illegal aliens from receiving government-subsidized health care under the proposed plan backed by House Democrats and President Barack Obama.
The House Ways and Means Committee nixed the Heller amendment by a 26-to-15 vote along straight party lines, and followed this action by passing the 1,018-page bill early Friday morning by a 23-to-18 margin, with three Democrats voting against the plan.
The Democratic plan will embrace Obama’s vision of bringing free government medical care to more than 45 million uninsured people in America – a significant portion of whom are illegal aliens.
According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, costs under the Obama plan being proposed by the House will saddle citizens with $1.04 trillion in new federal outlays over the next decade.
Congressional Democrats and Obama have argued that their health plan is necessary to contain rising health care costs.
But, last Thursday, CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf testified before the Senate Budget Committee and warned lawmakers that the proposed “legislation significantly expands the federal responsibility for health care costs."
A key factor increasing costs is that Democratic plan provides for blanket coverage to as much as 15 percent of the U.S. population not currently insured, including illegals.
The move to cover 12 million illegal immigrants with health-care should enrage just about everybody in the USA. We can't keep taking in every free loader who sneaks into this country and give him/her welfare benefits, health-care, and Social Security benefits and expect the country not to go bankrupt.
This latest editorial by the gazette is just about as bias as you can get!!! We need another news source in this county. I mean wth!!
As far as this stupid, idiotic health care plan, and like I have said before....people have become too fat, lazy and stupid to even take care and pay for their health care. But they sure can maintain their cars. They sure can buy their kids those computers that are cheap fromt walmarts. They sure can buy those flat screen tv's cheap from walmarts. I guess those cheap $4 prescriptions, that cost a bit more than a gallon of gas, is just too much, huh?
AND TAX THE RICH...OMG!! Depending on what state you live in, if you worked your a** off and worked 24/7 to become wealthy, just hang on to your a** cause the government will take UP TO 50% in combined taxes.
And let's not forget that this will just be the beginning of 'regressive health care'. And if anyone of you out there has private insurance through your employer and you choose to leave that job and go seek employment elsewhere....you can NOT sign up for their private health insurance, if offered. You will have NO choice but to sign up for government health care.
Where are the pitch forks and where the hell is the outrage?
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Anybody hiring? I think I'm getting closer and closer to losing my job. How long is it going to take for Obama to start picking certain plans to close...or to make so many regulations that they lose enough enrollment that they can no longer afford to operate?
Re June 4 letter, “Give Americans a choice on health care”: My husband is Canadian. He’s in touch regularly with his brother in New Brunswick, who has been waiting for a heart operation for over seven years! If you want to see how his health care is paid for, check out the price of gasoline. And that’s just one of the items that they have taxed outrageously to pay for the health care they don’t receive. Is that really where we want to go? No thanks!
People tend to forget that $$ doesn't make a person....a person makes $$.....
what that person does with their $$ is who they are.....just ask any sheeple advertisers....
healthcare is not a right.....healthcare is what someone strives for and does daily.....what we eat,drink,smoke,sit, walk,stand, work.... etc etc......
our bodies are a job in and of themselves.....anyone meet the 200year old person yet?----yeah, me either........
my health insurance is part of my hourly wage THAT I WORK FOR......is it the best---no freakin' way.....but, obviously neither was Michael Jackson's.........
we reap what we sow---INDIVIDUALLY........
failure to thrive in basic life triage and choices never comes up as a reason.......
I cant take from someone else what they have and know what to do with it......people have what they have because they have what they have...........
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
Real health reform requires getting rid of private insurance
As Congress negotiates a universal health care bill, it is important that they don’t lose sight of a key question: why the health care system needs reform in the first place. Our nation’s health care system is plagued by wasteful paperwork, an impenetrable bureaucracy, and HMOs providing selective coverage that creates financial barriers between patients and the care they need. These problems share a common root: the private, for-profit insurance industry. The majority of Americans who file for bankruptcy do so due to medical bills. Not surprised? Seventy-seven percent of those people had private health insurance. The insurance companies are adept at finding ways to avoid paying the money they owe you in order to maximize their profits. Unlike some countries where access to health care is taken as a human right and considered a social service of the government, we in the United States treat health care as a matter of capital, something you gain access to at a certain level of wealth, or something to be used as a bargaining chip between you and the company you work for. The notion that the health needs of a human being are reducible to a commodity is a perverse standard, one perpetuated by the insurance companies to ensure their continued existence. Private for profit health insurance is a burden on every American taxpayer, not just working-class Americans who cannot afford health care, or the medical professionals who struggle with having their hands tied by corporate interests. Health insurance provides nothing of value; eliminating it could save as much as $400 billion a year. Contrary to what Congress is proposing, we don’t need to spend more money for universal health care. The amount of money government spends on Medicare and Medicaid alone is greater per capita than other industrial nations that cover everyone and provide better quality health care than we do. “Public option” health plans and insurance mandates being pushed in Congress claim to ensure near-total coverage, but ultimately increase tax subsidies for the private insurance industry. The Congressional Budget Office estimate such plans would still have 25 million or more Americans without insurance — and many more without adequate coverage. Even if a public plan is offered, the private insurers will continue to select for the healthies (i.e., least costly) clients, leaving the public program overloaded with the chronically ill. We cannot achieve equality universal health care when we leave the for-profi t interests of private insurance in control. We must begin to treat health care as a human right, not a commodity, and cease playing Monopoly with human lives.
BRENDAN DIEFFENBACH Rotterdam Junction The writer is a volunteer for the Hunger Action Network of New York State.
here's the thing.......having 'Universal/National Healthcare' is one thing......to actually be seen and treated is another....
so......who is going to be the 'Big Brother Czar' to tell the MD's, nurses, med schools, research centers, hospitals etc.....how to spread out and where to go.......
soooo, will universal healthcare provide transportation to an 'advanced research hospital/specialist' for those folks 'wanting' a NEWBIE treatment?.......
someone will have to make this decision........and believe you me,,,,it WILL be made for us.......
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
Obama Defends 'Rush' for Health Care Reform, Says 'Stars Are Aligned'
President Obama tries to rally support for health care reform at his fourth prime-time press conference. But with momentum slowing considerably in the effort to reach a deal by the August recess, the president concedes that he wants to "do this right" and says he wouldn't sign a bill that doesn't achieve key objectives like reducing costs.
FOXNews.com Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Facing criticism from both sides of the aisle that he's pushing too hard and fast on health care reform, President Obama on Wednesday defended his "rush" to get it done and said Congress must take advantage of this rare opportunity.
"The stars are aligned," Obama said in prime-time news conference, and the American people are depending on Congress to reach a compromise promptly. He wants a deal by Congress' August recess.
"If you don't set deadlines in this town, things don't happen. The default position is inertia," the president said, singling out his critics for playing political "games" with health care reform.
Reform is critical for rebuilding the economy and controlling the deficit, Obama argued. But with momentum slowing considerably in the effort to reach a deal on time, the president conceded that he wants to "do this right" and said he wouldn't sign a bill that doesn't achieve key objectives like reducing costs.
At the news conference, called to rally support for health care reform, Obama acknowledged that Americans are "understandably queasy" about debt and deficits -- and the impact health care reform would have on both.
Obama used the news conference to try to put skeptics at ease, both inside and outside the Beltway. He said health care reform would not only improve the quality of care they receive at reduced cost but in the long run actually rein in spiraling deficits and debt.
"If we do not control these (health care) costs, we will not be able to control our deficit," he said.
He rejected the notion that his administration only wants to "spend and spend." In an odd boast, the president said his administration has already reduced the 10-year deficit projection from $9.3 trillion to $7.1 trillion.
"Now, that's not good, but it's $2.2 trillion less than it would have been if we had the same policies in place when we came in," Obama said, blaming the Bush administration for the scope of the deficit.
Moderate Democrats known as Blue Dogs, though, are joining Republicans in raising concerns that the plans on the table will burden the federal government -- and, in turn, the taxpayers -- with unwieldy financial obligations.
In response, Obama insisted he would not tolerate a plan that adds to the deficit over the next decade. He also said he wouldn't sign a bill funded primarily through taxes on the middle class.
And he took on his most vocal Republican critics, accusing them of spreading misinformation and trying to make the debate about him.
"This isn't about me," Obama said, once again calling out Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., though not by name, for saying a loss on health care reform would "break" the president.
"This debate is not a game for these Americans, and they can't afford to wait for any longer for reform," Obama said. "They are counting on us to get this done. They are looking to us for leadership. And we can't let them down. We will pass reform that lowers cost, promotes choice and provides coverage that every American can count on. And we will do it this year."
Obama rallies support for struggling health revamp
By BEN FELLER, Associated Press Writer 54 mins ago
WASHINGTON – Six months in office, President Barack Obama sought Wednesday night to rally support for sweeping health care legislation he's struggling to push through Congress, expressing support for a surtax on families making more than $1 million a year to help pay for it. Under pressure from Democrats to weigh in personally on the details of legislation, Obama also vowed at a prime-time news conference to reject any measure "primarily funded through taxing middle-class families." While the session was dominated by health care, Obama said in response to one question that Cambridge, Mass., police "acted stupidly" last week in arresting Henry Louis Gates Jr., a black scholar at Harvard, in his house. Police were called to the house to investigate a possible break-in. Gates produced identification but was arrested on a charge of disorderly conduct after protesting the police conduct. "Now I don't know, not having been there, what role race played in that," the president said. But he added that blacks and Latinos often are stopped by authorities in disproportionate numbers. Police have dropped charges initially lodged against Gates. Obama stepped to the microphone looking grayer than the man who ran for president and took office in January and immediately began confronting the worst economic recession in decades. He defended his decision to set a midsummer deadline for the House and Senate to act on health care, even if it isn't met. "I'm rushed because I get letters every day from families that are being clobbered by health care costs, and they ask me can you help," he said. If the consequences are high for nearly 50 million Americans who lack insurance, the political impact is huge for Obama, who is putting much of his credibility on the line to gain congressional passage. His stepped-up public role comes as he faces rising criticism from Republicans, sliding public approval ratings and divisions within his party. Obama acknowledged that many people are uneasy about growing federal budget deficits and the fast-rising government debt. He said that without a deadline for action, a recent proposal to curtail the growth in Medicare costs would not have materialized "until who knows when." He said in the past few days, leaders in both houses had agreed to incorporate it into legislation taking shape. Asked if it was his job to produce a deal on legislation, the president said: "Absolutely it's my job. I'm the president. And I think this has to get done." He said that since he moved into the White House, "we have been able to pull our economy back from the brink." Yet, he said, "of course we still have a long way to go." Obama didn't say so, but unemployment, currently 9.5 percent, is expected to remain stubbornly high for many months to come. He was eager to talk about health care — an issue that now towers above all others — and has led at least one Republican to say that it could prove to be the president's Waterloo if the drive collapses. "This isn't about me. I have great health insurance and so does every member of Congress," he said. ................>>>>..............>>>>.............http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_obama
Tell Dems there’s no free lunch when it comes to health care
George Will has written, more than once (probably) and quoting someone else (I think), “If you think health care is expensive now, wait until it’s free.” Now the CBO [Congressional Budget Office] has calculated that the Democrats’ health-care “reform” proposals will not reduce health care costs. The CBO can’t turn a phrase as well as Will, but it can calculate with the best of them. Health-care costs started rising faster than inflation in the 1960s, when Democrats gave us Medicare and Medicaid Those programs increased both the demand for health care and the supply of money available to pay for it and prices went up. Today’s Democrats believe that if they do more of what they did in the ’60s, we’ll get a different result. George Will, the CBO, and common sense say otherwise. Admittedly, the cash cows for the health care industry that government and employer-based insurance have become, have helped financed marvelous diagnostic tools and pharmaceutical solutions that have extended life and improved its last years even as they have driven up the cost of an in-hospital aspirin. Were government capable of effective cost containment, the next wonderful medical invention or discovery would be postponed or lost all together, eliminating the only benefit of government involvement. But government has neither the wit nor the will to contain costs, since that would involve disabusing us of the notion that we can have our cake, eat it too, and have someone else pay for the diabetes medicine. Ultimately the U.S. economy pays for our health-care costs — and that’s us. Whether we pay that price in higher taxes, higher prices, fewer jobs, or rationed health care, we pay. (Anyone who thinks the cost is going to be absorbed by the Democrats’ favorite boogeymen, “the richest one percent who benefi ted most from the Bush tax cuts,” raise your hand.) Moreover, the extent of those costs will be proportional to government involvement in the provision of health care. Write to President Obama, Sens. Schumer and Gillibrand, and Reps. Tonko and Murphy and tell them that you understand that there’s no such thing as a free lunch. They’ll be stunned.
CHRIS CALLAGHAN Waterford The writer is a former treasurer of Saratoga County and unsuccessful Republican candidate for state comptroller in 2006.
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