Pin Headed Politics
News about the pinheaded things by politicians and governemt.
Supreme Court has just been proven brilliant in regards to Kelo Decision
Nov 14th
Not really.
Recent developments in New London, Conn. have actually proven how idiotic the judges in the majority were when they ruled that New London could exercise Eminent Domain to take away private property and then give it to a developer in an attempt to increase tax revenues.
In the Kelo decision, the 5 panel majority basically rewrote the Constitution. Instead of the Government only being able to take property for public use, the Court held that the Government could take property for the “public good”. And more tax revenues equaled “public good”. The decision completely undermined the idea of private property rights, and the majority of States responded by insuring that their State Constitution clearly set out that Eminent Domain could only be used when they property was going to be used for some kind of public function (like parks or a government building).
After that digression, back to the latest development.
The development plan that resulted in the Supreme Court decision was created in an attempt to attract Pfizer to New London. Pfizer has just pulled out of New London. Not only has Pfizer pulled out, but the land where all the homes were previous located, was never developed.
Now, instead of having home owners that pay property taxes, New London is sitting on a vacant field that produces no tax revenues at all. And it cost the city $80 million.
So much for the belief of the New London politicians that they could put the land to better use than the individuals that owned it.
And so much for the five judges on the Supreme Court that bought into that belief.
Health Care Bill: Taxes Taxes Taxes
Nov 8th
The Health Care Bill currently being debated in the House has a large number of Tax provisions, some of them are just dumb-founding.
Sec. 501 revises the Internal Revenue Code to impose a tax on any individual without “Adequate” Health Coverage. One of the major problems here is the fact that the Federal Government gets to decide what constitutes “adequate” coverage. Anyone with an insurance plan that does not meet that definition has a tax of 2.5% imposed on them.
That means that many individuals will face the choice of paying for coverage they don’t need or paying an additional tax. At least as long as non-qualifying insurance plans are available (not likely given this bill.) No unmarried, childless male needs an insurance plan that covers maternity care or well baby coverage, but this bill imposes those requirements on Insurers.
This provision either forces people to pay more for additional coverage (which they may not need) or pay more in taxes. Either way, many people will face higher out-of-pocket costs as a result.
Sec. 512 Imposes a new tax on Businesses that don’t offer their employees health coverage (and remember, any Employer offered coverage must meet the Government imposed requirements, giving employers ample reason not to offer coverage). The tax is equal to 8% of the employee’s wages.
Read that carefully. 8% of the employee’s wages. This is not an 8% tax rate. That would be a tax on the employer’s profits. This is instead, an increase in the cost of doing business, and could increase costs for some business enough to put them out of business. This is especially true of those businesses that don’t make enough currently to offer their employee’s health insurance.
The costs associated with emplying workers is typically the highest expense for any business. Increasing it by 8% is a cost many businesses just can’t afford to absorb.
Sec. 532 Decreases the amount of money that can be contributed to FSAs (Flexible Spending Arrangements). This forces individuals with those plans to face higher taxes.
Sec. 533 Increases the penalty for “nonqualified” distributions from Health Savings Accounts from 10% to 20%. Again, another tax hike.
Sec. 551 Imposes an additional tax on “High Income” Individuals. The rate is 5.4% for individuals making $500,000 or $1,000,000 for joint filers. FYI, many of these people are small business owners. Taking money from them can result in less money for expanding a business, especially during a period of tight credit. This is coupled with the phase-out of George Bush’s tax cuts, which lowered the top marginal rate. The top rate will be 45% after this.
This is coupled with State income taxes. This means many of these people will be facing income tax rates well over 50%. How hard do you think people will work once the Government starts taking the majority of what is earned. When people stop working to earn more than a particular amount, because it just isn’t worth the effort, there is no longer any income for the Government to tax.
BTW, this particular provision id not indexed for inflation. Remember what occurred with the Alternative Minimum Tax (ATM)?
Sec. 552 Imposes a new 2.5% Excise/Sales Tax on the sale of Medical Devices. This is going to increase the costs associated with the use of those devices. If your Hospital buys a new MRI, they will now have an additional cost, one that they will have to pass on to the people using that Hospital.
If the idea is to lower medical costs, why impose a provision guaranteed to increase medical costs?
Hiding the true cost of the Health Care Bill
Nov 7th
I have posted previously on the fact that the costs of Health Care Bill’s currently before Congress aren’t accurately reflected in the CBO’s scoring of those bills.
The bills shift costs of Health Care away from Medicare and onto Medicaid. Because the latter is administered by the States, this serves to shift the cost off of the Federal Government’s books. It instead forces the States to pick up much of the cost of the Health Care Bills. These costs need to be considered in order to get a true picture of the cost associated with the bill.
Then there is the “Doctor Fix.” This is $250 Billion in spending for Medicare that has been pushed into another bill. However, this spending is necessary in order to get the Health Care Bill passed and should be associated with the bill. Including this spending increases the cost of the bill well over $1 Trillion and causes the bill to increase deficit spending by over $200 billion over the first 10 years of the program.
Then there is the budgetary game Congress plays in regards to timing. In this case, Congress immediately implements all the taxes related to the bill, but it defers much of the spending until 2013. This is when the “Health Care Exchanges” are created. This includes a public insurance program.
Then there is the latest accounting gimmick that NRO has pointed out. When the Health Care Bill proposed under Bill Clinton was proposed, the CBO included the cost associated with the mandate that all Americans carry health insurance in the cost of the bill. This cost was 50% more than the government incurred costs.
The cost this bill imposes on the American people could be as high as $1.5 Trillion.
Congress has shifted the costs associated with Health Care of the books of the Federal Government, and imposed them onto the States and the American people.
The true cost of Health Care is closer to 2 and a half Trillion Dollars.
Quick Road to Universal, Government run Health Care
Nov 4th
There has been a 40+ page Amendment to the House of Representative’s Health Care Bill.
Sec. 104 (“Sunishine on Price Gouging”) has been amended as to provide a quick method to reach Universal, Government Run Health Care.
This section forces insurers to defend any increase in premiums. It couples this forced disclosure of information from health insurers with grants to States that only occur if the State makes recommendations on excluding insurers from participation in the Health Exchanges. This is especially troubling when coupled with the bill’s prohibition on purchasing health insurance outside the Health Exchange after a certain point.
Preventing insurers from participating in the Health Exchange basically puts them out of business, and the States are given financial incentive in this bill to recommend that insurers be banned from participation.
Once all insurers are banned from participation in the Health Exchange, the only source of insurance will be the Government.
This becomes far more likely when the effect this bill will have on insurance premiums is taken into account. Premiums will skyrocket as a result of all the increased costs imposed on insurance companies, coupled with the incentive to healthy individuals to drop insurance.
Greatly increasing the cost of insuring individuals coupled with a decrease in the ability to spread the costs across an insurance pool will cause premiums to increase at an exponential rate. The Government will call this “price gouging” and ban insurers from participating in Health Exchanges. This will result in the Government being the only entity legally allowed to offer health insurance.
Hello Government run Health Care.
daddams16007
Recent Comments