While President Obama continues to say that national healthcare reform will not put Main Street USA further into debt, the bi-partisan Congressional Budget Office says otherwise.
Even though the president campaigned with the promise that "you will not see any of your taxes increase one single dime," those making over one quarter of a million a year most likely would be shouldering a large chunk of the burden.
Plus, if projections are not on target in two years, there will be an automatic tax increase for those folks.
And even President Obama's Chief Economic Advisor, Larry Summers, is not ready to rule out higher taxes for middle class America.
I, for one, cannot recall a major government program that did not end up costing all Americans (other than those who are not working) more in taxes and other forms of taking-away-our-earnings, such as the proposed sugary drink consumption tax.
On another front, Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, is telling her Democrats to inform their constituents what's in it for us and we will support it.
The problem with that is anything can sound good presented in the right way. That does not make it right.
Why not explain to everyone the elusive concept of one trillion dollars…spending one million dollars a day, each and every day, for over 2,700 years.
That is a whole lot of money, of national debt.
Senate Democrat John Rockefeller doesn't want to support something that "sounds user-friendly" like a public co-op and espouses that a co-op cannot take on the "gigantic insurance" companies.
Senator Rockefeller, how big are your family holdings in oil and banking (and other things we don't even know about)?
Besides, this isn't about anyone "taking on" the insurance companies, least of all our government, because if we are to do that, we are surely doomed. The "government" (i.e., Main Street USA taxpayers) will subsidize lower and lower insurance costs in order to "compete."
When there are so many disagreements about what this healthcare reform is really going to cost I think it is time to put on the brakes.
You cannot project revenue on assumptions and goals. You must have realistic figures; otherwise it all becomes pie in the sky.
And, I continue to state, not one of our elected officials are talking about Tort Reform as a way to reduce insurance costs, which it absolutely would accomplish. Perhaps that is because attorneys and law firms are one of the major lobbying blocks and that sector earns substantial fees for tremendous tort verdicts.
As a matter of fact, I have not counted them up, but I'd venture to say that a large percentage of Senators and House members came from those very ranks.
Coincidence, I suppose.
What Main Street USA must must must demand is accountability from our elected officials.
What if they take a pay cut, or don't take a vacation, or take a cut in their hefty pension plan if they can't balance a budget, or enact some legislation that doesn't earn the revenue they plan on or costs go over the allotted amounts.
Accountability goes both ways.
Some things to think about.
Over For Now,
Main Street One
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