To help pay for its expensive and painfully complex health care bill, Congress plans on burdening families and small businesses earning over $350,000 with a surtax. Ill-conceived “soak the rich” plans devised by Congress tend to inspire a yawn, a sigh, or applause from the vast majority of citizens who don’t have to actually pay the lopsided amount of taxes that the “rich” pay. Well, as it turns out, more and more of us might actually be “rich” enough to have to chip in to help fund government-run health insurance …
President Barack Obama told the American people on June 15th: What are not legitimate concerns are those being put forward claiming a public option is somehow a Trojan horse for a single-payer system. … So, when you hear the naysayers claim that I’m trying to bring about government-run health care, know this – they are not telling the truth. President Obama needs to tell his allies in Congress to stop contradicting him on camera. Here is Rep. Barney Frank (D-NY) talking to Single Payer Action on July 27: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3BS4C9el98[/youtube]
Members of Congress have been working frantically to bring the cost of the health care bill below $1 trillion, make it “deficit-neutral,” per the President’s instructions, and meet Blue Dogs’ expectations that it be “paid for.” As the Congressional Budget Office has pointed out, so far they’ve had no such luck. But the bigger problem is that in focusing on $1 trillion, Congress is missing the forest for the trees. All the estimates they evaluate are 10-year figures, yet nationalized health insurance, if it passes, will likely be around much longer than that. Longer-term …
Paul Krugman just can’t stop spreading misinformation about Medicare and health insurance. Today he writes: In the individual insurance market, where people buy insurance directly rather than getting it through their employers, so much money goes into underwriting and other expenses that only around 70 cents of each premium dollar actually goes to care. This is just plain deceptive. The latest government figures available, from 2007 (see Table 12), show that 87.8 cents of every private health insurance premium dollar went to personal health care bills. And that remaining 12.2 cents? …
The House Education and Labor Committee completed its consideration of HR 3200 this week after just 20 hours of work. The 1,018-page bill, which would overhaul a sector of the economy the size of Great Britain, was rushed through to meet House Speaker Pelosi’s earlier goal of getting the massive measure to the House Floor before the August recess. That goal is no longer achievable. Here are some key decisions made by the Committee and how they will affect ordinary Americans: Special Treatment for Socialized Medicine. (Kucinich Amendment text) Rep. …
The $1 billion “Cash for Clunkers” auto bailout Congress passed last June has run out of cash after one week. The House of Representatives is already readying a bill to pump another $2 billion into the program, setting a new land speed record for expanding foolish programs. There are so many valuable lessons to be drawn from this sorry episode it’s hard to know where to begin. But the most important is the clear warning it sends for health care reform. The Cash for Clunkers program is pretty simple. The …
Cash for clunkers is working. Too well, in fact. The $1 billion program that offers $3,500 to $4,500 rebates to turn in your old vehicle to purchase a new, fuel-efficient one. The billion dollars is projected to run out much more quickly than previously thought, and while it’s a great deal for a new car, the program isn’t running too smoothly: Through late Wednesday, 22,782 vehicles had been purchased through the program and nearly $96 million had been spent. But dealers raised concerns about large backlogs in the processing of …
D.C. families filled a Senate conference room on Thursday to applaud Senator Joseph Lieberman’s (I-CT) introduction of a bill reauthorizing the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship program. The Scholarships for Opportunity and Results (SOAR) Act would reauthorize the program for another five years, and allows new students to continue to enter the program over that time period. Senators Lieberman, Collins (R-ME), and Voinovich (R-OH) unveiled the bipartisan bill alongside former Mayor Anthony Williams, and former D.C. City Councilmember Kevin Chavous. If passed, the SOAR Act would reauthorize the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship program, …
The Washington Times has published more follow-up stories today and yesterday about the Justice Department’s dismissal of a voter intimidation lawsuit against the New Black Panther Party (a racist hate group according to the Southern Poverty Law Center) – despite the fact that the defendants defaulted and failed to answer the complaint. The new revelation is that Associate Attorney General Thomas J. Perrelli approved the dismissal. He is the No. 3 official at Justice and is a political appointee who raised $500,000 for President Obama’s campaign. There is no doubt …
If you watch television you’ve seen the ads: “So bring in that old jalopy and get up to $4,500 towards the purchase of a new or select used vehicle. That’s right, get up to $4,500 for that old piece of junk, plus you keep the rebates. You have to hurry! Since funds are limited for this program it’s first come, first served!” Well, we’re about to find out just how limited those funds were. The Obama administration’s cash-for-clunkers program has been such a “success” that in just the first week …
