Congress and Healthcare Reform
The opposition to the Health Care Reform package currently floating around congress has won a great battle by slowing down the bill’s passage beyond the schedule set by the administration and House Speaker Nanci Pelosi. Speaker Pelosi and the Obama Administration hoped to have a bill worked out before the August Recess. Instead, thanks in no small part to the so-called ‘Blue Dog Democrats’, the House adjourned without passing a reform bill.
The problem with the Democrats’ behavior dates back to the Bush Administration. During that time, Democrats cried foul at this sort of tactic used to push the Republicans’ agenda through congress before anyone had a chance to read and understand the full implications of a bill. That makes the attempts to steamroll the Healthcare Reform through congress by the the Democratic leadership all the more reprehensible.
Such sweeping reform with such far-reaching and long term consequences should be given due consideration by both parties in congress and by the populace as a whole. Friend and foe alike should be given the opportunity to read and pick apart such an important bill to ensure that alternate viewpoints can be expressed.
The current plan being advanced may well turn out to be a great one. It may also contain many problems that can be resolved before passage. One thing is for certain: more time needs to be given for everyone to know just what they are voting on.
Republicans and moderate Democrats are to be applauded for their efforts to delay the bill until after the August recess.
August 4, 2009 - 8:25 am
The only thing delaying the bill will do is kill it off.
August 4, 2009 - 9:11 am
Not at all. It will give the people a chance to read and (more importantly) understand the proposal.
August 4, 2009 - 9:15 am
It may do that, but the Republicans already want to kill it off. It’s just the moderates that must decide.
August 4, 2009 - 4:36 pm
Good points JBlake.
August 5, 2009 - 6:57 am
The health care reform plan unveiled today by House Democratic leaders suffers from rosy revenue assumptions and stale savings provisions, according to a preliminary analysis by the 362,000-member National Taxpayers Union. NTU Vice President for Policy and Communications Pete Sepp offered the following statement about the legislation:
With their new health care plan House Democratic leaders seem to have abandoned the ‘borrow now, spend now, pay later’ philosophy for a mantra that is just as dangerous to our economy: ‘tax now, spend now, and tax again.’ Aside from the disastrous impact of the new income surtaxes, more may be in store for America’s small businesses and entrepreneurs if the savings from the health care bill don’t materialize. The two initial rates of surtax will double if savings targets aren’t met.
Whatever else happens, the maximum combined federal tax rate in the U.S. will surpass those in France, Ireland, Italy, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Our rate will tie or even exceed that which burdens citizens in the People’s Republic of China. The highest rate on dividend income would triple once the Bush tax cuts expire, and the rate on capital gains would reach a 15-year high. Forget about a bull market anytime soon.
The revenue that the bill’s supporters hope to reap from taxpayers may not be realistic. In 2007, when our economy was still booming, the Joint Committee on Taxation determined that a 5 percent millionaire’s surtax plus a 1 percent rate increase for the top bracket would raise barely more than half the receipts that supporters are seeking today with surtaxes of 1 percent, 1.5 percent, and 5 percent on similar income levels. Even after accounting for other revenue provisions in the package, something’s not adding up, and this reality gap will only grow worse as America’s most productive citizens become less inclined to work and create jobs. Middle-class taxpayers shouldn’t be fooled: their wallets will soon be in Congress’s sights.
On the savings side of the ledger, the legislation proposes a grab bag of cost-cuts that previous Congress have rejected or delayed, including reduced physician payments under Medicare and Medicaid restructuring that could meet stiff resistance from states.
Never before have five innocuous words strung together — ‘America’s Affordable Health Choices Act’ — meant something so contradictory. George Orwell is spinning in his grave.
That’s a bipartisian committee
August 5, 2009 - 4:00 pm
Hey guys. askbob! What’s up it’s been a while?! Just wanted to say hello to everyone, say great article to JBlake, and say good job with the site thus far.
Britt
August 5, 2009 - 7:05 pm
hey britt, it’s been pretty good, as of today I’ve made 51% investing in one year! Things have been going really well for me. What have you been up to?
August 12, 2009 - 4:02 pm
When are we going to break the AMA labour monopoly?
August 15, 2009 - 7:37 pm
Maybe after the March on Washington.