How the Ultra-Rich Are Trying to Kill Health Reform

By David Sirota, Creators Syndicate
Posted on July 25, 2009, Printed on July 25, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/story/141520/

Here's a truism: The wealthiest 1 percent have never had it so good.



According to government figures, 1-percenters' share of America's total income is the highest it's been since 1929, and their tax rates are the lowest they've faced in two decades. Through bonuses, many 1-percenters will profit from the $23 trillion in bailout largesse the Treasury Department now says could be headed to financial firms. And, most of them benefit from IRS decisions to reduce millionaire audits and collect zero taxes from the majority of major corporations.



But what really makes the ultra-wealthy so fortunate, what truly separates this moment from a run-of-the-mill Gilded Age, is the unprecedented protection the 1-percenters have bought for themselves on the most pressing issues.



To review: With 22,000 Americans dying each year because they lack health insurance, Congress is considering universal health care legislation financed by a surcharge on income above $280,000 -- that is, a levy almost exclusively on 1-percenters. This surtax would graze just 5 percent of small businesses and would recoup only part of the $700 billion the 1-percenters received from the Bush tax cuts. In fact, it is so miniscule, those making $1 million annually would pay just $9,000 more in taxes every year -- or nine-tenths of 1 percent of their 12-month haul.



Nonetheless, the 1-percenters have deployed an army to destroy the initiative before it makes progress.



The foot soldiers are the Land Rover Liberals. These Democratic lawmakers secure their lefty labels by wearing pink-ribbon lapel pins and supporting good causes like abortion rights. However, being affluent and/or from affluent districts, they routinely drive their luxury cars over middle-class economic interests. Hence, this week's letter from Boulder, Colorado's dot-com tycoon Rep. Jared Polis, D, and other Land Rover Liberals calling for the surtax's death.



Echoing that demand are the Corrupt Cowboys -- those like Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mt., who come from the heartland's culturally conservative and economically impoverished locales. These cavalrymen in both parties quietly build insurmountable campaign war chests as the biggest corporate fundraisers in Congress. At the same time, they publicly preen as jes' folks, make twangy references to "voters back home," and now promise to kill the health care surtax because they say that's what their communities want. Cash payoffs made, re-elections purchased, the absurd story somehow goes that because blue-collar constituents in Flyover America like guns and love Jesus, they must also reflexively adore politicians who defend 1-percenters' bounty.



That fantastical fairly tale, of course, couldn't exist without the Millionaire Media -- the elite journalists and opinionmongers who represent corporate media conglomerates and/or are themselves extremely wealthy. Ignoring all the data about inequality, they legitimize the assertions of the 1-percenters' first two battalions, while actually claiming America's fat cats are unfairly persecuted.

http://www.alternet.org/healthwellness/141520/how_the_ultra-rich_are_trying_to_kill_health_reform/

the insurance companies.

Those of us without insurance (that includes me) will be forced to buy something we can't afford in the first place. That's the only substantive change.

It's time to put some Blue dogs in the pound. And if not claimed in a week, put 'em to sleep.

Wouldn't bother me if they had to waddle around in their own waste for a while, just to bring home the point of what dirty little bastards they truly are.

and could only think of the scene in 'Magic Christian' where they throw pound notes into a lake of odure and release the buisnessmen to retrieve them....

and make millions more every year go to such great lengths to hoarde that less than one percent tax increase for themselves. People are dying. Others go bankrupt and never recover financially. Others suffer for years with easily treatable ailments. Why do so many rich people bicker over money they are never going to miss anyway?

They truly have nothing else.
If they are hoarding money by denying healthcare to others it is because they have no love, no honor, no integrity, no humor, no morals, no courage in their own lives.

Disclaimer: I am extrapolating from the few I know. YMMV but I doubt it.

"In fact, it is so miniscule, those making $1 million annually would pay just $9,000 more in taxes every year -- or nine-tenths of 1 percent of their 12-month haul."

In monthly terms, their $83,333 per month would be taxed an additional $750 per month.

Hot and smart gets me every time! He's THE sexy policy wonk!