Just kill it

Today's Washington Post reports that the Senate Finance Committee has hit on a compromise proposal for health care reform.

It would "require most people to buy health insurance."

Good luck with that.

Over in the House, they're looking for a trillion dollars to pay for the first ten years of the plan. So far, their favorite options are a "surtax on the rich," an "increase in the payroll tax," new taxes on "sugary drinks and alcohol," and "a national value-added tax" (that's a type of sales tax) of 3 percent.

Good luck with that, too.

How do you like it so far?

Maybe you'll like the Senate's funding idea better. They're leaning toward taxing employer-paid health insurance, meaning you would owe income tax on the cash value of your employer-paid benefits as if you had received that money as cash income.

Some Democrats are opposed to this because it would really hammer union members, whose health plans are excellent and very expensive.

Senator Max Baucus told reporters he's open to the idea of exempting from the tax any health benefits that are provided under a union contract.

Seriously? Non-union employees would have to come up with the money to pay taxes on their health benefits and union employees wouldn't?

Do you feel sick yet?

Have a glass of club soda and relax. Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid have never exhibited suicidal tendencies. One day you'll open the newspaper (or the iPhone) and there will be a stunning, staggering number in some government economic report, or there will be a stunning, staggering development in some international situation, or there will be a stunning, staggering harvest of vegetables on the White House lawn, and that will suddenly become THE REASON that health care reform must wait until... until... until after the 2010 elections.

Then it will be back where it started, on the campaign trail in Iowa and New Hampshire, just one more bottle of snake oil in the hands of a charismatic traveling salesman.


Copyright 2009

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