During the election, candidate Obama called candidate McCain’s proposal to tax employer-provided health benefits “the largest middle-class tax increase in history.” Today President Obama is sending signals that he would support the same idea.
Representative Pete Stark (D, CA) says it's a "stupid idea."
According to the New York Times, such a tax could raise $3.6 trillion over a decade to help “expand coverage to the 46 million uninsured Americans.”
(The complete New York Times article – worth a read – can be found here.)
Except when you take an honest look at who is being inappropriately included in that 46 million (4.1 million now eligible for government benefits via expanded SCHIP + 12 million already eligible for government programs but not signed up + 10 million illegal aliens, + 10 million Americans “opting out” = 32 million) it really comes out to about 14 million uninsured Americans.
$3.6 billion (over 10 years) + the President’s proposed $634 billion “down payment” (over 10 years) divided by 14 million uninsured. Talk about healthcare inflation!
(And this isn't counting the dollars allocated via the stimulus package that provides unemployment insurance-eligible Americans and their families with government health insurance as part of their benefits.)
For more on miscounting the uninsured, see “Sasquatch Care.”
Another thing the candidate Obama was against but now supports seems to be drug importation. Can support of government price controls be far behind?
Representative Pete Stark (D, CA) says it's a "stupid idea."
According to the New York Times, such a tax could raise $3.6 trillion over a decade to help “expand coverage to the 46 million uninsured Americans.”
(The complete New York Times article – worth a read – can be found here.)
Except when you take an honest look at who is being inappropriately included in that 46 million (4.1 million now eligible for government benefits via expanded SCHIP + 12 million already eligible for government programs but not signed up + 10 million illegal aliens, + 10 million Americans “opting out” = 32 million) it really comes out to about 14 million uninsured Americans.
$3.6 billion (over 10 years) + the President’s proposed $634 billion “down payment” (over 10 years) divided by 14 million uninsured. Talk about healthcare inflation!
(And this isn't counting the dollars allocated via the stimulus package that provides unemployment insurance-eligible Americans and their families with government health insurance as part of their benefits.)
For more on miscounting the uninsured, see “Sasquatch Care.”
Another thing the candidate Obama was against but now supports seems to be drug importation. Can support of government price controls be far behind?
