By Alan Caruba
Whatever healthcare legislation is passed will be (a) a pack of lies and (b) end up costing well beyond the estimates that range from hundreds of billions to beyond a trillion dollars.
One way or the other, the DEMOCRATS led by Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid will find a way to pass something, anything, called healthcare reform. It simply does not matter that most voters have concluded it is yet another liberal-inspired, utopian disaster. And the only good news is that they might as well be signing the Party’s death notice in 2010.
History, as always, provides the best measure against which to determine what the future holds. This is because people, political parties, and others invariably make the same mistakes over and over again.
Let us take a look at Social Security.
When Franklin Roosevelt, a DEMOCRAT, introduced the Social Security (FICA) program he promised that participation would be completely voluntary and that the participants would only have to pay 1% of the first $1,400 of their annual incomes into the program. These days, one is enrolled in Social Security at birth!
Participants were told that the money they to put into Social Security would be tax deductible from their income. Today, Social Security payments are taxed as income.
It was the DEMOCRAT Party that eliminated the income tax deduction for Social Security (FICA) withholding. Former Vice President, Al Gore, cast the tie-breaking vote.
The integrity of Social Security was to be ensured by an independent "trust fund" and would not be mingled with the government’s general operating fund. FICA payments would be used solely to fund the Social Security retirement program.
It was Lyndon Johnson and the DEMOCRAT controlled House and Senate that eliminated the independent "trust fund" and put it into the General Fund so that Congress could spend it.
The DEMOCRAT Party, led by Jimmy Carter, decided to give Social Security annuity payments to immigrants who at age 65 would be eligible to receive payments. The Party gave these payments to them even though they may have never paid a dime into the program.
And, finally, for the first year since 1975, Social Security beneficiaries will not receive a cost of living adjustment in 2010 despite the fact that the cost of food, energy and healthcare continues to climb and the value of the dollar declines against other currencies.
Healthcare costs can be addressed. Simply permitting insurance companies to sell policies across state lines in the same fashion as auto, home, and other insurance is sold would increase competition and spread the risks. As it is, the insurance industry has a paltry 2.2% profit margin and the proposed healthcare reforms would put them out of business.
So, as you watch the machinations involving five different versions of “healthcare reform”, each ranging up to and beyond a thousand pages, you might want to write your Senator and Representative urging them to reject this latest fleecing of Americans.
You need not write if they are Republicans as that Party is almost unanimously opposed to it.
The DEMOCRAT’s are doing what they do best; lying to voters.
This “healthcare reform” seems to have as its goal the further destruction of the economy, the degrading of the healthcare system, and further control over the most intimate decisions Americans and their physicians make regarding their lives.
If passed, in some cases, they will be told to go home and die.
Some in Congress may actually believe they are doing something good. They may have the most altruistic of motives. They may not know that the practitioners of tort law are a major force in driving up medical expenses. They may not know that the Federal Government prohibits interstate commerce in insurance. These folks are too ignorant to be dogcatchers, but they were nonetheless elected by their constituents. (John Murtha comes to mind, and I'm certain you can think of others.)
ReplyDeleteRonald Reagan pointed out years ago, in fact before he became president, that the Socialist agenda has at the top of the list the acquisition of power/control over the citizens. He said their initial pathway to gain that control was control of medicine/health care. He was right, and that's what this is about and has been about since the Democrats first began trying to "reform health care" years ago. It has nothing to do with health care except for denying it to seniors and the aged. Sort of a retroactive birth control if you will.
We haven't much true privacy left and if this monster becomes law, it won't make any difference what happens at the polls next year. Big Brother is coming to a doctor near you.
Having the most altruistic of motives is the basic problem. Altruism is the basis for all socialism, communism, facism, etc. It demands that the individual sacrifice for the collective, group, or society.
ReplyDelete@Baltwo: As a native, I can tell you it would never work in New Jersey! :-)
ReplyDeleteBeware those who would tell you they only wish to help their fellow man. They really want to dominate their fellow man.
ReplyDeleteAlan,
ReplyDeleteHere is some information that I think is worth looking at.
Question - How much money does the federal government owe the Social Security Administration as of March of 2004?
Answer - 51 trillion dollars.
Question - What was a man’s average life span in 1935 when S.S. was signed into law?
Answer – 65
Question – What is a man’s average life span today?
Answer - 75
Question – What was the total percent of deduction in 1937-39?
Answer – 2% split between the employer and the employee on $1400.
Question – What is it today?
Answer – Slightly over 15% on $109,000.
Question - In 1945, what was the ratio of workers to retirees?
Answer - 42 to 1
Question - What was the ratio in March of 2004?
Answer - 3.2 to 1
Question - What is it supposed to be in 2030?
Answer - 2.2 to 1
Question - Who was the first recipient of S.S., how much was her first check, in what year did she start collecting, how much money did she get in total and how long did she live .
Answer - On Jan. 31, 1940, Ida May Fuller of Ludlow, Vt. received check number 00-000-001, for $22.54. Living to be 100 years old she received a total of $22,000.
Question - What percentage of the federal budget goes to S.S.
Answer - 20.9%
Question -What percentage goes to Medicare/Medicaid?
Answer - 20.4%
Question – Since a special tax is collected for S.S., why is it a part of the budget?
Answer – Because there isn’t really a “trust fund”.
Remember they sold this program by saying that this program that was going to be 100% voluntary, the collections would never be increased, the annuity payments would never be taxed as income, the social security deductions would be deductable from their income tax, and the money really would be kept in a real “trust fund”.
Thought provoking...don't you think?
So some 40% of the US budget goes to two social programs? Which leaves 60% for everything else.
ReplyDeleteAnd the Democrats want to expand Medicare coverage.
What's wrong with this picture?