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Politics : A US National Health Care System? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Road Walker who wrote (14762)	3/19/2010 10:54:55 AM
From: Alighieri	1 Recommendation Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42652

Many House Democrats strongly disliked the Senate’s proposed excise tax on high-cost, employer-sponsored insurance policies. In the Senate-passed bill, that provision would have raised $150 billion over 10 years. Mr. Obama and White House officials reached a deal with organized labor groups to delay the implementation and limit the impact of that tax. As a result, the excise tax will raise only $32 billion over 10 years, according to the budget office. Of course, that meant coming up with $118 billion more elsewhere to plug the hole. Not a problem: to help make up the difference Democrats adjusted a proposed increase in the Medicare payroll tax for individuals earning more than $200,000 a year and couples earning more than $250,000. The tax will now apply to “unearned income” like dividends and interest. Makes perfect sense...they did NOT manipulate the parameters as conspiracy paranoid theorists would have you believe...they changed the structure by which they pay for the costs. Al

To: Road Walker who wrote (14762)	3/19/2010 7:08:31 PM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42652

Love it or hate it, one thing that is indisputable about the Democrats’ big health care legislation is that the cost figures are going to come out right where President Obama said he wanted them. Which should surprise no one. If the program was estimated to cost over a trillion, they would fiddle with it until the estimate comes out at less than a trillion. It was obvious from near the beginning that the bill would have an estimate of about this level. What will be a surprise (assuming it passes) is if it winds up actually only costing this much. Building the health care legislation was not some wild shopping spree in Macy’s Even in the unlikely event that the cost estimate is accurate $940bil over the first 10 years, and then continued growing expenses indefinitely, is a wild shopping spree. Rather, it was more like a trip to the local fruit stand with a set amount of money in hand No money is in hand, some of it will be borrowed, the rest will be taken from the people in and around the fruit stand.