Bush Says Health Insurance Isn't for Poor People
Posted on
Saturday, January 20, 2007
by Gary A. Ballard
George W. Bush, Jr. and his crony administration don't want you to have health insurance. Oh sure, they want to appear as if they care about average Americans and the astronomically-rising cost of health care. But it doesn't take an economist or a genius to see through his latest health insurance legislation to the true disdain for working-class Americans at the heart of this bill.
For the first time, Bush wants to give a tax deduction to citizens who purchase their own health insurance instead of having it provided by their employer. Now that part of the program I can get behind. After all, people who are self-employed don't have employers to provide health care, and it would certainly be a help to have a tax break for such necessities.
That sounds great. But it's the next part that really pisses from a very great height on working class Americans, especially the middle class that has been such an over-abused fuckpuppet of the Bush Administration.
And that's where the knife gets twisted. Those people who work for a living, but get their insurance through their company get penalized for picking the top-tier insurance plans. It's ok if you get the cheap plan with the giant deductible, but if you want to have your family really protected without having to pay out the ass in deductibles, you should be punished by having your taxes raised.
But look further. The really rich folks who choose not to buy health insurance through their employers, and can afford the top-tier of health insurance, the people I call the idle rich, those folks actually get a tax break. It's a small one, certainly. But these are also the people who benefited most from previous Bush tax breaks like capital-gains tax breaks, people who already likely have plenty of tax breaks and shelters and ways to hide their income with investments. So what might at first glance look like an aid to American families is just as much of a giveaway to the idle rich as all other Bush tax changes.
Anything to avoid the stench of socialized medicine, right, Shrub? Those damned entitlement programs are evil, unless they are aiding the people with the most money to donate to the campaign fund. Let's not forget that the insurance companies likely do not have to provide the same kind of bulk discounts to regular customers that they do to businesses who purchase blocks of plans for all their employees.
Yes, entitlement is evil, until it rewards you and your business friends.
For the first time, Bush wants to give a tax deduction to citizens who purchase their own health insurance instead of having it provided by their employer. Now that part of the program I can get behind. After all, people who are self-employed don't have employers to provide health care, and it would certainly be a help to have a tax break for such necessities.
Bush's proposal would for the first time allow people to take a tax deduction -- similar to the one used by homeowners for their mortgage costs -- when they buy health coverage on their own instead of through an employer.
That sounds great. But it's the next part that really pisses from a very great height on working class Americans, especially the middle class that has been such an over-abused fuckpuppet of the Bush Administration.
The program is intended to have no effect on government revenues because
the cost of the tax breaks would be offset with other tax changes, according to
a senior administration official who described the proposal to reporters.
Currently, employees who receive health coverage through their jobs do not
pay taxes on the benefit. Bush would set a cap on the amount of coverage that
would be considered tax-free. Anything above that would be taxed as income.
The limit for deductions would be $15,000 for families and $7,500 for
individual, one administration official said. The average cost of family health
coverage is $11,500....Bush said the tax code unfairly penalized people who want to buy health insurance on their own while offering incentives for people to use expensive, "gold-plated" coverage.
At least one senior lawmaker in the new Democratic Congress raised objections to Bush's proposal."This is a dangerous policy that ultimately shifts cost and risk from employers to employees and could result in a higher number of uninsured," said New York Democratic Rep. Charles Rangel, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee...."We must address these rising costs, so that more Americans can afford basic health insurance. And we need to do it without creating a new federal entitlement program or raising taxes," Bush said in his weekly radio address.
And that's where the knife gets twisted. Those people who work for a living, but get their insurance through their company get penalized for picking the top-tier insurance plans. It's ok if you get the cheap plan with the giant deductible, but if you want to have your family really protected without having to pay out the ass in deductibles, you should be punished by having your taxes raised.
But look further. The really rich folks who choose not to buy health insurance through their employers, and can afford the top-tier of health insurance, the people I call the idle rich, those folks actually get a tax break. It's a small one, certainly. But these are also the people who benefited most from previous Bush tax breaks like capital-gains tax breaks, people who already likely have plenty of tax breaks and shelters and ways to hide their income with investments. So what might at first glance look like an aid to American families is just as much of a giveaway to the idle rich as all other Bush tax changes.
Anything to avoid the stench of socialized medicine, right, Shrub? Those damned entitlement programs are evil, unless they are aiding the people with the most money to donate to the campaign fund. Let's not forget that the insurance companies likely do not have to provide the same kind of bulk discounts to regular customers that they do to businesses who purchase blocks of plans for all their employees.
Yes, entitlement is evil, until it rewards you and your business friends.
Labels: Bush Administration, Government Corruption, Health Care, Politics
posted by Gary A. Ballard @ 4:46 PM
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