Saturday, January 27, 2007

Bush's Health Care Fool's Gold


This Progressive Populist editorial expands on why the President's plan to give everyone a new tax deduction, supposedly for health insurance, is not a health care plan at all. This is actually a new large tax deduction that for political purposes has been connected to health-care insurance. Since it is a deduction and not a tax credit it doesn't help those who most need both lower taxes and health insurance.

If you remove making health care insurance taxable out of the proposal I could support this, although some other means of paying for it would have to be found. Repealing all of the Bush-Cheny tax cuts perhaps? Ending the over $7 billion a week Iraqi occupation?

More on this right-wing think tank proposal that is indifferent to the people who really need healthcare from Paul Krugman.

Ezra Klien supported this until he looked at the details and admitted he was wrong.

In a dissenting view, Paul Star attempts to make the case that making all health-care insurance costs taxable and visible on W2s might kick start a debate on creating a better, more liberal system. Ezra explains what is the health-care insurance system that we liberals want.


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