The health care bill could be Donald Trump's Iraq War - By Ezra Klein
The health care bill could be Donald Trumps Iraq WarSold on lies, poorly planned, deadly to thousands, and a catastrophe for its authors.
Updated by Ezra Klein@ezraklein Mar 23, 2017, 8:00am EDT
If it passes, the American Health Care Act will be Donald Trump and Paul Ryan's Iraq War. It's been sold with lies. It's been pushed forward with a shock-and-awe legislative strategy. And its architects are woefully unprepared for the chaos it would unleash upon passage.
There is an honest argument that could have been made for the AHCA. Conservatives believe it is not the governments responsibility to ensure the poor can afford decent health insurance. They argue that if taxpayers are pitching in for someones coverage, that coverage should be lean; a high-deductible plan that protects against catastrophic medical expenses is plenty for charity care. Under this view, the basic structure of Obamacare which taxes the rich to purchase reasonably generous coverage for the poor is ill-conceived and should be reversed.
The core philosophical disagreement here is real and worth hashing out. Whereas liberals see access to health care as a right, conservatives see it as more akin to transportation important, and perhaps worth subsidizing at low levels, but if someone cant afford a car, its not the governments responsibility to buy them one, much less buy them a nice one. This is the viewpoint the AHCA reflects.
It is not the viewpoint elected Republicans are selling. Instead, their rhetoric fits the sort of plan that Sen. Bernie Sanders might offer. Donald Trump won the 2016 election promising to protect Medicaid from cuts and ensure coverage for all. After the election, he reiterated the vow, telling the Washington Post were going to have insurance for everybody with much lower deductibles.
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http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/3/23/14991332/gop-health-bill-ahca-trump-iraq
goldstardad
(9 posts)Seeing the supposed changes in the GOP Non-Health Care plan, I call RumpCare. It reminds of a story in the Bible about a time when God asked someone Where is your brother? and the Lord received this as an answer, I dont know
am I my Brothers Keeper? This from the man who killed his brother.
Before the gnawing and gnashing of teeth begin at the supposed innuendo of tying the GOP Non-Health Care plan to a murder, let me clear this up. It is not an innuendo it is how I will look at each and every one who votes for this bill with the same contempt as one would look at Cain.
If I was to lose my job and this bill was law, please remember me fondly at my funeral. Because when I had my heart issue I was not really given this long and without access to health care I wont make long. I guess I can take some solace, I wont be alone there will be many others who will be joining me.
Folks health care is not about money it is about people. The main goals of a health care bill should not be about tax breaks and deficit reduction, it should be how to provide great health care to All Americans.
I can hear the blood rushing through veins of the limited government folks and hear their sneers and them saying, It is not governments duty to take care of the sick! Well Au Contraire my angry ones, government does have a duty both morally and actual physical duty.
Lets start with the actual responsibility:
The Preamble:
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
I am not going to even try and tie what the Founding Fathers meant with promote the general Welfare to our current Welfare State. What I will do however is look at it from the more conservative definition of what the Founders meant with this phrase. The definition from a conservative point of view (and one I do not disagree with) is the overall state of wellbeing of the nation as a whole.
So if we have an individual moral duty to feed the poor, heal the sick, and provide clothing for the poor, especially those who follow the teachings of Jesus. Then why do so many who follow the teachings of Jesus absolve themselves of this moral duty once they enter the fraternity/sorority of government?
Thomas Jefferson believed:
Moral duties [are] as obligatory on nations as on individuals. Thomas Jefferson: The Anas 1808, 1808. ME 1:480
If we have the Individual moral responsibility to Be our Brothers Keeper Then do not those in Government have in a greater opportunity to make a greater impact?
Which leads of course to money and the conservatives theology of not having their money taken to give to the poor. Would it surprise you that many of the Founding Fathers believed that the entire cost of government should be shouldered by the rich? In fact Jefferson did not think the poor should be out one cent.
"The rich alone use imported articles, and on these alone the whole taxes of the General Government are levied. ... Our revenues liberated by the discharge of the public debt, and its surplus applied to canals, roads, schools, etc., the farmer will see his government supported, his children educated, and the face of his country made a paradise by the contributions of the rich alone, without his being called on to spend a cent from his earnings." --Thomas Jefferson to Thaddeus Kosciusko, 1811. ME 13:41
"We are all the more reconciled to the tax on importations, because it falls exclusively on the rich, and with the equal partition of intestate's estates, constitutes the best agrarian law. In fact, the poor man in this country who uses nothing but what is made within his own farm or family, or within the United States, pays not a farthing of tax to the General Government, but on his salt; and should we go into that manufacture as we ought to do, he will pay not one cent." --Thomas Jefferson to Pierre Samuel Dupont de Nemours, 1811. ME 13:39
The problem we have today is that we have way too many people who love their money more than they love their brother/sisters.
But I have a plan to solve healthcare. First we can do away with all the taxes from Obama Care, get rid of all taxes for Medicaid and Medicare (and do away with them all together), do away with all copays and out of pocket expenses, and do away with all insurance plans. By doing this, what happens to Doctors, Hospitals, Clinics, and all areas of health care is those with health conditions will be the most important people. Because for them to be paid they will need to treat sick people.
But if we get rid of all the taxes how will we pay for it. Somewhat tongue and check) We do trade over 1 trillion shares of stocks and bonds. So a 5.00 (average) surcharge on each stock traded/ raises almost 6 trillion dollars. A 1% sales tax on everything else. Which puts us maybe 7 trillion dollars for a 4 trillion dollar industry. The customer has more money because they have no health care costs, businesses are more competitive because they are not burdened with health care, and they will be able to pay more to their workers.
And hospitals would have to compete for the sick peoples business.
Divide the abundance into thirds, a rainy day fund for health care, shore up social security, and pay down debt.