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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Katelew who wrote (131632)	2/26/2010 3:56:59 PM
From: Paul Smith	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 540840

Everyone comes out ahead with the government picking up the tab. I'd like to know more about that detail. Does that mean government bonds sold to China picks up the tab and that there are no consequences or does it mean that the government just prints free money to pick up the tab?

To: Katelew who wrote (131632)	2/26/2010 4:48:44 PM
From: Lane3	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 540840

The 'good ship lollipop' we're all on Excellent choice of image. I wish I'd thought of it. So this seems like a very generous subsidy to me. You can look at it with sympathy from the perspective of the difficulty of coming up with 10+K for health insurance at that income level and feel like they need the help. But when you turn the problem around and look at what a thin platform we're standing on and it's unsettling. There is something inherently shaky about a system where fewer than half of us pay income taxes at all and fewer than a fifth of the population is paying enough in income taxes to cover what they get back in transfers, seems to me. Four fifths of the population can vote to raise taxes on the better off to pay for transfers to them without any real constraint. I find it unsettling. I'd like a stronger base than that. But then my glasses aren't tinted.

To: Katelew who wrote (131632)	2/26/2010 4:53:24 PM
From: Mary Cluney	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 540840

<<<Everyone comes out ahead with the government picking up the tab.>>> There are costs and there are benefits. While we are waiting for CBO to score the latest proposal, Obama is still trying for consensus. Obama is not taking anything off the table. If you come up with anything, he will consider it. In the meantime, here is in broad terms what I think Obama is looking at when budgeting and paying for health care: "reform proposals could encompass preventive measures and efforts to encourage healthier lifestyles. Broadly speaking, three basic policy approaches could be adopted. First, more information about the consequences of unhealthy behavior or the factors contributing to it could be made available, in forms that could affect individual behavior or even social norms. (Nutritional information, for example, is readily available for packaged foods but more difficult to come by for other sources, such as restaurant meals.) Second, financial incentives could be modified to encourage healthier living and to discourage unhealthy activities. For example, cigarette taxes could be increased, which would discourage smoking, especially among teenagers. In addition, an increase in the federal tax on cigarettes of 50 cents per pack would raise about $5 billion per year, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation. Third, regulatory steps could be taken to encourage healthy behavior and discourage poor health habits. For example, recent efforts have been aimed at improving the nutrition and reducing the calories of school lunches and snacks available in schools. In addition, some research suggests that changing the presentation of food choices can encourage healthy eating. There could be great value in exploring these and other mechanisms that offer the potential of constraining health care spending without diminishing the quality of care that people receive." But to really understand this stuff, you would have to go deep into the weeds. The problem is that there are not that many people that have the wherewithal to go in that deeply. That not withstanding, we should all be able to see that our health care system is broken. Every one can see the rising cost of health care as percent of gdp is growing faster than the cost of living. If nothing is done the rise in health care costs is not sustainable. Doing nothing is not an option. Most people are just making political statements or voicing opinion that has very little foundation. If you are really serious, you would have go deep into the weeds.