Letters to the Editor
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Re: Obama's Health Care Solution
Quick links:
http://www.barackobama.com/issues/healthcare/
To address some points:
Who is covered:
"Individuals and families who do not qualify for Medicaid or SCHIP but still need financial assistance will receive an income-related federal subsidy to buy into the new public plan or purchase a private health care plan."
So no, not just those people below the poverty line. It is also for those people who work but don't have health care benefits.
How much it will cost and how it will be paid for:
"Q. How much will it cost us taxpayers?
A. The Obama plan will cost between $50-65 billion a year when fully phased in.
Q. How will we pay for the Obama plan?
A. The Obama plan will realize tremendous savings within the health care system to help
finance the plan. The additional revenue needed to fund the up-front investments in
technology and to help people who cannot afford health insurance is more than covered
by allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire for people making more than $250,000 per year,
as they are scheduled to do."
Now take a look at:
http://www.hillaryclinton.com/feature/healthcareplan/summary.aspx
When I compare the two plans I see a lot more points of agreement than disagrement.
Although I will point out that Sen Clinton lacks the honesty to admit that, yes, letting some of the Bush tax cut expire is really a tax increase. Letting the cuts expire is a good thing. We could have had this plan enacted years ago but instead we gave millionares tax cuts they didn't ask for? It seems like it is a criminally bad choice of priorities and Hillary shouldn't be afraid to hammer that point home.
Instead she tells the people reading her plan that new spending amounts to tax cuts for everyone. Wheee! Free candy and sunshine for everyone! I would have assumed the "experienced" "realistic" candidate would respect me enough to admit that Universal Health Care requires a tax increase. Improving peoples' lives is something I expect my tax dollars to be doing and I have no problem seeing that witholding if that is what the witholding is going towards. It is the obsolete weapon system purchases and kick backs to Haliburton that get me.