Mar 15 2009
The Insanity Of Liberalism
Only a liberal would assume taxing a benefit will make it cheaper – I kid you not:
The Obama administration is signaling to Congress that the president could support taxing some employee health benefits, as several influential lawmakers and many economists favor, to help pay for overhauling the health care system.
The ‘problem’ with the health system is affordable access. We have the best health care resources in the world. We produce the most new treatments, drugs, therapies and technology. There are pockets of capable science and technology around the world, but none compare in the breadth and depth of medical capabilitiesin the US.
The problem is affordable access. This premier medical care is expensive. It is made more expensive by having to cover uninsured illegal (and non-taxpaying) immigrant workers. It is also made more expensive through wasteful law suites which drain the medical pool of billions of dollars. It is made costly be endless red tape, reporting requirements, insurance paperwork, etc.
And now the liberals in DC plan to make it more expensive by taxing it – pulling more money out of the pool that should be used to provide the best in health care to Americans. And this will make it more affordable to more people and increase access?
Only a liberal could concoct such incoherent nonsense.
GuyF:
one reason, you had started a steady drumbeat a while back of ‘name calling’, I just thought I’d return the compliment. If you will refrain from name calling, I will also.
Redteam:
Fair enough. I do tend to get a bit short-tempered when people tell me that I enjoy the death of innocents, or diagnose my children without ever meeting them. I’m funny that way.
But your points above are cogent – I think we’re talking over each other right now, but at least I understand the points you are making.
But on a final note: calling me “Gay” is an insult? And you are still wondering why the GOP is having trouble with that “big tent” concept?
Here is another interesting item:
85% percent of American workers are non-union.
Only 9% of non-union workers WANT to be in a union. That is pretty pathetic. We have a President that wants to push workers into agreements they do not want.
The AIG thing is just posturing. Geithner told AIG that they had to abide by the compensation contracts or the employees could sue and could also collect punitive damages on top of the amount due for breech of contract.
AIG stood to lose more money if they refused to pay the bonuses than if they did pay them. Treasury and the White House were fully aware of that. AIG called Treasury and asked for guidance and was told they had to honor the contracts. What is going on now is just theatrics to pay with people’s emotions. The Obama administration is quickly getting a reputation in the business community that they are liars and can not be trusted.
A more comprehensive roundup of the AIG thing is available here.
GuyF
calling you gay is an insult, gosh I thought you were a lib and being gay was all hunky dory.
So you’re harkening back to when I said ADHD is a made up illness? Well, it is and I supplied you with the evidence.
Guy, there is tons of stuff written about the myth of ADD, you should read some of it: It is usually blamed on parents.
ADD/ADHD is a popular diagnosis in the 1990’s because it serves as a neat way to explain away the complexities of turn-of-the-millenium life in America. Over the past few decades, our families have broken up, respect for authority has eroded, mass media has created a “short-attention-span culture,” and stress levels have skyrocketed. When our children start to act out under the strain, it’s convenient to create a scientific-sounding term to label them with, an effective drug to stifle their “symptoms,” and a whole program of ADD/ADHD workbooks, videos, and instructional materials to use to fit them in a box that relieves parents and teachers of any worry that it might be due to their own failure (or the failure of the broader culture) to nurture or teach effectively. Mainly, the ADD/ADHD label is a tragic decoy that takes the focus off of where it’s needed most: the real life of each unique child. Instead of seeing each child for who he or she is (strengths, limitations, interests, temperaments, learning styles etc.) and addressing his or her specific needs, the child is reduced to an “ADD child,” where the potential to see the best in him or her is severely eroded (since ADD/ADHD puts all the emphasis on the deficits, not the strengths), and where the number of potential solutions to help them is highly limited to a few child-controlling interventions.
Redteam, don’t worry too much about GuyF. I haven’t quite figured out yet if he is really as dense as he sounds or if he is just a shill playing devils advocate in order to draw people’s arguments out more completely.
They tell me where I work that my benefits are worth $18000. If this is taxed at the same rate everything else taken out of my paycheck, I could take home less than 50% of what my salary. I realize I would probably get some of it back (SOME – not much) It is getting very difficult out there. I work for a brokerage firm and my income is down 35% so far and will probably be down 40% by the end of the year.
On the AIG topic – here are some quotes form today’s WAPO –
Pretty Scary…
“Politicians and the public spent yesterday demanding that AIG rescind payouts that they said rewarded recklessness and greed at a company being bailed out with $170 billion in taxpayer funds. But company officials contend that the uproar is scaring away the very employees who understand AIG Financial Products’ complex trades and who are trying to dismantle the division before it further endangers the world’s economy.
“It’s going to blow up,” said a senior Financial Products manager, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak for the company. “I have a horrible, horrible, horrible feeling that this is going to end badly.”
“What’s good for AIG is definitely not good for the country,” Macey said. “But now that the government is invested, it may have to do what’s good for AIG.”