Obama's Health Care Bait and Switch

From Wallace Forman on Tuesday, June 16, 2009 5:04 PM

In his speech to the AMA yesterday, President Obama sounded dire warnings of a coming health care crisis:

Today, we are spending over $2 trillion a year on health care -- almost 50 percent more per person than the next most costly nation.

….

The cost of our health care is a threat to our economy. It's an escalating burden on our families and businesses. It's a ticking time bomb for the federal budget. And it is unsustainable for the United States of America.

….

If we fail to act, one out of every five dollars we earn will be spent on health care within a decade. And in 30 years, it will be about one out of every three -- a trend that will mean lost jobs, lower take-home pay, shuttered businesses, and a lower standard of living for all Americans.

What was the President’s bold plan for warding off the fiscal tidal wave? Spend more:

As part of the budget that was passed a few months ago, we put aside $635 billion over 10 years in what we're calling a Health Reserve Fund. Over half of that amount -- more than $300 billion -- will come from raising revenue by doing things like modestly limiting the tax deductions [of] the wealthiest Americans.

That’s right: the solution to runaway costs is a $635 billion subsidy of the health care industry, paid in part by a “modest” $300 billion increase in income taxes! Apparently bored of his old job as car-dealer-in-chief, the President has decided to try his hand as a huckstering insurance salesman.

Here are the facts. In his stimulus plan, Obama authorized an $89 billion increase in “temporary” Medicaid spending, $24.7 billion in health subsidies via COBRA, and $19 billion for dubious health information technology expenditures. He also signed into law an expansion of SCHIP, for a CBO-estimated 10 year cost of $65.4 billion. If health care costs are spiraling out of control, the President is part of the problem, not part of the solution.

If you want more of something, subsidize it. If you want less of something, tax it. Obama’s plan to provide an “affordable” (read: subsidized) public insurance option is guaranteed to increase health care spending. His plan to tax the wealthy is just as sure to discourage entrepreneurship and prolong the recession.

For a realistic plan that would control exploding costs without damaging the economy, see this proposal by Ryan Ellis, Tax Policy Director for ATR.

Permalink | Email | Print | Tags: HEALTHCARE, SPENDING, OBAMA, BUDGET, STIMULUS

Comments

Its quite an amazing tactic of Mr. Axelrod. Goes like this. If Obama is on the record providing support for BOTH (or multiple) sides of the issue, the right will have "SOMETHING" to attack, the Left will have something to defend. And while both battle it out tirelessly, well can give SPEECHES reciting platitudes to packed houses with the message of the day. Eventually, everyone gets tired of arguing, the media stops paying attention, and we can go along with our radical statist agenda as planned. Sound about right?
>> Media Splatters Tuesday, June 16, 2009 6:18 PM Report Comment

"Car-Dealer-in-Chief" I like it. Quick, which are the four most hated professions in America? Lawyers, Politicians, Used Car Salesmen, and Insurance Salesmen, probably top that list. Politicians have mostly been lawyers for a long time, but now they get to be used car salesmen and soon will be health insurance salesmen as well. Who said the government isn't efficient? Now it is one stop shopping for despicable human beings (and I use the term "human beings" loosely). Btw, if you want more of something you don't subsidize it, you liberate it. If you want to control it you subsidize it and if you want to kill it you tax it.
>> TCH Wednesday, June 17, 2009 12:48 PM Report Comment

PS. No offense to any good lawyers, used car salesmen, or insurance salesmen out there, I know you aren't all bad, but come on, you know you didn't get into that field to make friends and you know the reputation your profession has. To any politicians, however, complete offense, those other professions at least contribute something of value to society.
>> TCH Wednesday, June 17, 2009 12:57 PM Report Comment

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Obama's Health Care Bait and Switch

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