Back from vacation. I'm tired but looking forward to the next couple of months.
I think Carville is right here, both politically and policywise. Aside from policy matters, there is no use wasting all of this political capital on something that you don't want in the first place. Also, not having a full vote on this allows scared blue dog Dems to not vote for the thing even if they really support it.
For the record, I don't necessarily support a public option as proposed. I think the government should offer a basic plan that everyone should be required to have or the insurance companies through regulation must be required to offer a basic plan and then people can purchase supplemental insurance on top of it.
I also don't think it's fair to just tax the wealthy. My dad feels that the government should increase payroll tax for all income brackets by 1%. Everyone should contribute funds to something that I believe everyone should have access to.
What we really need to focus on is funding end-of-life care and those who have really complex terminal illness. We can afford regular checkups and the random stitches and illnesses that the large majority of people go through.
Hello world!
6 months ago
Two things about the across-the-board payroll tax:
ReplyDelete1. Do you think that employers may pass that cost along to employees via lower/no wage increases? If so, this would seem to have a disproportionately bad impact on lower income earners, no? Maybe a sliding scale payroll tax would be better?
2. Obama promised no new taxes on people earning < $250K. Do you think they would see the payroll tax as a broken promise? What about the added stress put on small business owners? How politically viable do you think this is?
Also, do you think the prez/congress should be emphasizing "health and wellness" more? With guaranteed health care for all, I wonder if better coverage for sick/overweight folks (pre-existing conditions) who don't currently have good insurance (or any at all) will lead to costs exceeding the savings brought from increased coverage of younger, healthier folks.