The Health Care Bill passed the Senate. It really makes no sense; they’ve taken out a Public Option and Medicare reform to compensate for the lack of a Public Option…and yet when I was waking up this morning, I heard that Obama wanted the Senate to “make sure the taxes are structured so that they don’t harm middle class workers” in regards to taxes and fees for so-called “Cadillac” insurance plans.
It’s a crock on two fronts. For one, he doesn’t give a damn about the middle class–his Marxist ideas will likely destroy the middle class and create a highly stratified society of haves and have-nots.
On another front, assuming that there is no Public Option or Medicare reform in lieu of a Public Option anymore, then why do they need taxation of “Cadillac” insurance plans anymore at all? What the hell are these taxes going to pay for, if there is no public insurance of any kind in this bill? I’m pretty sure that the taxes and fees were set in this bill with that in mind so, without it, where the hell is the money going to go? Do they still have those stupid government cooperatives in there? Do they have some other regulatory tools in there? Even if that were the case, why the tax increases on the plans for something regulatory? It just makes no sense. And of course, for it to make any sense, you have to troll through thousands of pages to find something that probably implicitly lays something out.
Of course, it stinks of a dirty Chicago politician. The next decades are really going to suck. People didn’t want this; a great majority of Americans did not want this bill–whether they wanted something more Conservative or more Liberal, NO ONE is happy with it. And, of course, they passed it anyway. Representative Democracy has failed us. And, pretty much predictably, no one seems to care. I hope that not only does the Congress pay for this in the coming elections, but also the Presidency. That’s pretty much our only hope, at this point.