House Health-Care Proposal Adds $600 Billion in Taxes (Update-2)

What we are looking at:

$600 Billion in tax increases and $400 Billion in cuts to Medicare and Medicaid as the number of Babyboomers added to the rolls increases daily… while we already owe a Trillion in interest on the money the government (Obama Administration) has already borrowed and printed to this point, before this nationalized health-care proposal.

June 12 (Bloomberg) -- Health-care overhaul legislation being drafted by House Democrats will include $600 billion in tax increases and $400 billion in cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel said.

Democrats will work on the bill’s details next week as they struggle through “what kind of heartburn” it will cause to agree on how to pay for revamping the health-care system, Rangel, a New York Democrat, said today. The measure’s cost is reaching well beyond the $634 billion President Barack Obama proposed in his budget request to Congress as a 10-year down payment for the policy changes.

Asked whether the cost of a health-care overhaul would be more than $1 trillion over a decade, Rangel said, “the answer is yes.” Some Senate Republicans, including Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah, say the costs will likely exceed $1.5 trillion.

House Democrats plan to release their legislation next week. Obama is working with Congress to get legislation to his desk by October.

Democrats in the House and Senate are crafting legislation that would require all Americans to have health insurance, prohibit insurers from refusing to cover pre-existing conditions and place other restrictions on the industry.

Online Exchanges

The legislation would establish online exchanges for individuals to purchase insurance and would require employers to provide health benefits to workers or pay a penalty. Some Democrats also are backing creation of a government-run program to expand coverage to the uninsured. The issue is the subject of bipartisan negotiations with Republican who oppose the so-called public option.

Rangel said Democrats are still considering options for tax increases that might be in the bill, including a possible end to the income tax exclusion for employer-paid health benefits.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat, is considering a proposal to apply income taxes to health-care plans if they are significantly more expensive than the basic health plan for federal employees -- $13,000 for a family of four.

Rangel said House Democrats want to avoid the deeper cuts to projected spending under Medicare and Medicaid that Obama has been putting forth. House Democrats want to achieve cost-savings by cuts in payments to private insurance plans under Medicare.

Covering the Costs

Obama has pledged that health-care changes won’t add to the deficit. To accomplish that, he’s proposed getting about $600 billion by reducing tax deductions available to the wealthy, and by trimming Medicare payments to insurance companies.

That won’t be enough to cover the overhaul costs. Obama said this week he plans in the coming days to disclose more proposals for raising “additional sources of revenue.” In a letter last week to Senate Democrats drafting legislation he said he will be proposing between $200 billion and $300 billion in further Medicare and Medicaid cuts.

Obama plans to give a speech Monday in Chicago to the American Medical Association as part of his campaign to build up support for what could be the biggest changes to healthcare policy since Medicare was established in 1965.

Rangel said that while House Democrats will likely release more details about health policy changes in their legislation next week, the package of offsetting tax increases and spending cuts likely will come later. Democrats, he said, want to put forth the more-positive aspects of an overhaul first. Rangel also wants to let lawmakers have time to study and weigh in on proposed offsets.

“We have a problem in not wanting to attract enough negative attention to the bill in terms of the pay-fors,” he said. “Let them get a good feel for the coverage.”

By: Laura Litvan in Washington at: llitvan@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: June 12, 2009 19:05 EDT

Source: Fox Nation

Posted: Knowledge Creates Power

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Stop the Insanity!!

Updated: If you'd like to contact Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, here's the contact information that you'll need.

Contact info for Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi

Please contact your representative, your Senator and Speaker Pelosi on this matter and others as they arise (almost daily these days).

Where Were You??? - Supporting Those Around You Who Are Standing Up, Being Successful or Making a Difference

Many years ago a young lady who was attending a seminar shared an interesting story with me. Apparently she and two or three of her girlfriends went and tried out for a place in a stage play. She got the starring role while her girlfriends were not even picked for the supporting cast. Opening night she said she was really excited but afterwards became very disappointed when her girlfriends never came out and supported her. She was explaining the situation to an elderly friend of her fathers named Hap. He wrote her a letter and she gave me a copy with her permission to share it with others.

Read it carefully and think.

Dear Ann,

Once upon a time there was a fellow by the name of Al Capp who wrote a comic strip called "L'll Abner." Many years ago he had some characters in his strip who lived in a town near Dogpatch. They were the town bums, the n'er do wells, the failures whose whole aim in life was to pass judgment on others. Their criticism and ridicule became so vehement that in time the rest of the people in the town became acutely conscious of it. "The boys down at the stable," as they were called because that's where they spent most of their time, soon set the social standards of the town. Nobody could do anything without their sanction.

Because they lived within the structure of their crummy little world, they would laugh and point their fingers at anyone and everyone who tried to be better than they were. As a result the people feared the ridicule of the boys down at the stable so much that they stopped trying. Soon everybody became bums and the town died.

In every social structure, Ann, whether it be family, town, county or state, there are "The boys down at the stable." They are the jealous ones. They are too scared to try something different. They show their ignorance by laughing at those who do. Learn to recognize them Ann, for what they are. Don't let them hurt you. It takes a certain amount of toughness to succeed. One has to rise above those who would tear you down so that they can laugh and say, "I told you so!"

There are too many of us who love you and want you to make it. I could put myself at the top of the list. You aren't going to fall flat on your face as they would have you. You are going to do a superb job. Remember this show is only a small step in the direction of greater things you will do, many of which are beyond your wildest dreams. All you have to do is want to. One of the things I like about you best is that you always give it hell for try.

The show will be a success because of you and others like you who try. There are only winners in the cast. The losers are gathered down at the stable laughing and hoping for your failure. If we could dig down deep inside them, I'm sure we'd find they want to win also, but are too scared to try, and they attempt to cover up their own failures as human beings by laughing at others. In a sense I'm sorry for them. Their guilt must make them very unhappy people.

Much love, Hap

Source: From the files of Bob Proctor...

This is where so many of us find ourselves today… not willing to fight "The boys down at the stable", too afraid or lazy to try, and not even willing to support those who are fighting the good fight for us. Many of us are not even willing to listen to an alternative news source; read a book or two to inform ourselves of what is really going on and why; or even check out a blog or two by those who are putting themselves on the line in an era where Homeland Security and ‘big intrusive government’ labels anyone who has an alternative thought as a ‘right-wing extremist’.

If there was ever a time to dig deep… get informed, get involved and stand up for the beliefs and principles you believe in, grew up with and make our Country… the United States of America, the Country people die to get into… IT IS NOW!!!!!

You are not alone! There are grassroots movements springing up all over the Country and people are writing; speaking up; talking about their fears and what is important, one-on-one and in groups; and peaceably taking to the streets: Tea Parties, Tax Revolts, Protests for Traditional American Beliefs and Rights as written in the Constitution...

Now is the time for all Americans to stand up and step out of our comfort zones!

As Ronald Reagan said, “Democracy is worth dying for, because it's the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man. And, freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.”

What will you say when your children and grandchildren ask you where you were when American Democracy died and when the crippling debt they inherited from our generation was allowed to be amassed; when the once super power, America, died like the small town near Dogpatch... where everyone gave in and then gave up. - Ask Marion/Marion Algier~

Posted: Knowledge Creates Power

Related Resources:

• Progressivism – The Progressive Movement Is A Cancer – How We Got Here
• American Capitalism Gone With A Whimper - Pravda