nightmare =28 T Medicare 75 yrs/1.6 T 10 yr Perm Tax cut/1.2T Alt Min 10yr

Beyond Social Security's little problem over 75 years - and no problem until 2042, a fiscal 'nightmare' brews with Medicare/making Bush Tax Cuts permament/eliminating Alt Min Tax

Tax cuts, demands of aging population may produce toxic mix

By Marilyn Geewax
WASHINGTON BUREAU
Sunday, March 20, 2005

WASHINGTON -- <snip>They include:

* Medicare. Its deficit is projected to reach $27.8 trillion over 75
years, dwarfing Social Security's $3.7 trillion deficit.

* Income tax cuts. Bush and GOP congressional leaders say they're
committed to making previously enacted cuts permanent instead of
letting them expire as scheduled. That would shrink revenues by an
estimated $1.6 trillion over 10 years.

* The alternative minimum tax. There's increasing pressure to keep it
from affecting more middle-class taxpayers, a move that could cut
revenues by up to $1.2 trillion over the next decade.

<snip>Social Security is facing an "imperceptible crisis compared with what is going on with Medicare," said Stephen Moore, a leading proponent of cutting taxes and creating personal accounts for Social Security.<snip>

The 10-year cost of making all of Bush's tax cuts permanent would be
$1.6 trillion, according to an estimate by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.<snip>

If Congress were to eliminate the alternative minimum tax after
making the other tax cuts permanent, it would slash revenues by
another $1.19 trillion over 10 years, according to the Brookings
Institution, a research group.<snip>

http://www.statesman.com/search/content/auto/epaper/editions/sunday/news_24d3d26d93b9705e0039.html

most Americans want the tax cuts permanent.

So, no medical care except for the very rich, clearly....
and then when the medical bills come in...no bankruptcy either.

But, what I'm noticing from the numbers here is nothing is going to
stop medical costs from bankrupting the country and appears
the US needs to model from Europe ASAP...
of course that would be *socialism* so nobody will realize that's what
needs to be done as well as put medical care on caps and get rid of "for profit" insurance and pharmaceuticals.

not the Kerry perm tax cut for those under 200,000?

medical costs to go down, if pharma companies and other medical institutions realize people can't afford their services and products anymore.

I certainly liked my German "social" system, but I have a feeling you won't see it here any time soon.

And further more I agree with both of you on the perm tax cuts, they can be helpful if designed right, targeting the populus in whole and not just the rich. -- I wonder what Landsburg would say about the fairness of the current tax cuts? -- But it sure looks to me like this is a path down the wrong alley.

their ranks are overrun by greedheads, like Frist.

Then nationalize all four corners of health:

drs
big pill
hospitals/nursing homes
insurance

That will kick excess profit out of the picture and make costs reasonable. Like Europe.

Start with the doctors. With greedheads on the front lines, who do not care to deliver to you what school taught them, only wishing to see more patients each hour to rack up more billing... we are not getting good care.

Nothing less than setting all their income at the avg. 5O K, will force greedheads to slither off.
Can you come up with any other way? .....=== I didnt think so.

We have just sunk from 2O nations outliving us, to 24. Small wonder.
Greedheads like Frist fill the ranks of drs. A guy who recently scored a zero on the ADA ratings. Some healer!

Want guys like that at your bedside, padding your bill with tests never done? Giving you seven minutes and rushing on the the next patient?
We are being played for fools, suckers and rubes.