So who’s surprised? The Democrats get the power of the sound of their own voice in Congress again and they try to hammer the economy to pieces. This morning’s Wall Street Journal Washington Wire reports that Dennis Kucinich wants to do awy with private health insurance;
Kucinich is calling for a pretty dramatic overhaul of the health-care system — abolishing for-profit insurance, for one thing, and instituting universal coverage.
“Is health care a right or is it a privilege?†he said. “If it’s a right then it’s appropriate for the government to have a role. If it’s a privilege, then we’re left to the predations of the market – if you can’t pay for it, you’re out of luck.â€
When the WSJ’s Laura Meckler asked what would become of insurance companies, Kucinich said the government would buy them out. “Where there is a conversion of a for-profit institution to not-for-profit, there would be a market-value compensation,†he said. “You’re not going to have an expropriation here of resources.†He didn’t say how much that would cost, but said it would be funded with Treasury bonds.
His health plan would be paid for by a higher Medicare payroll tax, a tax on stock transactions and higher income taxes on top earners.
Yeah, that’s pretty looney – how many doctors are going to want to work for a government system, because that’s the end result. When we lived on the Canadian border in New York, the local hospital was staffed with Canadian doctors and nurses who didn’t want to work for the Canadian government – they’d prefer to drive over the Saint Lawrence River to get a decent paycheck instead of the “fair” wages of the government.
S.A.Miller of the Washington Times writes that Charlie Rangel has done some major tinkering with the tax code;
The Democrats’ top tax-writer yesterday introduced a massive plan to give tax relief to 90 million working families, a long-anticipated tax-code overhaul that Republicans criticized as the largest proposed tax increase in U.S. history.
The bill would expand income-tax breaks for the middle class while limiting deductions and adding taxes on high-end earners, increase the tax rate on “carried interest” fund managers earn on investments, and cut corporate tax rates. The Democratic plan also would repeal the alternative minimum tax (AMT), because it is set to penalize middle-income families this year.
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles B. Rangel, New York Democrat, said the changes would provide Americans a “greater sense of equity and fairness” about the tax system.
Whenever a Democrat talks about “equity and fairness” in the tax system and middleclass tax cuts, I grab my wallet. I’m middleclass, but the Democrats idea of equity and fairness is me shelling out a couple of thousand dollars a year in taxes.
Key provisions include a refundable child tax credit, an increase in the standard deduction and enhanced earned income tax credit — relief measures aimed at the middle class. It adds fairness, supporters say, by targeting rich Wall Street elites with the higher tax on carried interest, which is currently taxed at the lower capital gains rate of 15 percent but the Rangel proposal would put under the higher personal income-tax rate.
I’m sorry, but my retirement savings is in the hands of those “rich Wall Street elites” and they’ve been doing just fine so far – please don’t get them upset.
The bill would recoup some of the revenue lost by repealing the AMT — about $800 billion in 10 years — by adding a 4 percent surtax on individuals earning $200,000 to $250,000 a year and a 4.6 percent surtax on individuals making more than $250,000 and families making more than $500,000 a year.
I wonder why they never go after people with trust funds – like the Kennedys and the Kerrys. It’s always people who EARN over $200,000/year. How about taxing those people who SPEND over $200,000/year and don’t pay any taxes on it because they didn’t EARN it? I’m not in favor of raising anyone’s taxes – but if it has to be done, don’t target the people who producing and working to keep the rest of us employed, f’Pete’s sake.
Rep. Jim McCrery of Louisiana, the ranking Republican on the committee, said the “crushingly high” surtax would hit about 10 million taxpayers directly, including small-business owners and farmers who report business income.
“The damage will ripple throughout our economy,” he said in a memo to Republican committee members. “This is a massive tax hike on the engine that drives job growth in this country.”
He also said Mr. Rangel is “selling pure snake oil” by claiming the bill offers tax relief for 90 million families, since the Democrat counted taxes that most families currently do not pay, such as the AMT.
Hmmm, the Democrats want to insure people who can afford health insurance and save them money on taxes they don’t pay. Sounds to me like they’re just engaging in a little pre-election class warfare.