Posted on 05/14/2007 3:28:09 AM PDT by rellimpank
"Universal" government health care has once again returned as a political cause, with many Democrats believing it's the key to White House victory in 2008. They might want to study last week's news from Illinois, where Democratic Governor Rod Blagojevich's tax increase to finance health care became the political rout of the year.
The Democratic House in Springfield killed the proposal, 107-0, after Mr. Blagojevich came out against his own idea when it became clear he was going to be humiliated. Only a month earlier he had said he was prepared to wage "the fight of the century" in defense of his plan to impose a $7.6 billion "gross receipts tax" on Illinois businesses.
Easily re-elected in November, the Governor used every trick in the "progressive" political playbook to sell his proposal. Instead of a general tax increase, he claimed it would be "targeted" for universal health care and education. Instead of raising individual taxes, he aimed at business and even built in an exemption for smaller firms. "These corporate guys, they can't avoid this tax," declared the Governor, sounding one of the "populist" themes that liberal columnists are now recommending for national Democrats.
(Excerpt) Read more at opinionjournal.com ...
Wow, normally liberals plow ahead and just refuse to abandon their proposals no matter the tax increase.
The idea that what happens on the state level will be repeated on the national level is, I think, misplaced.
The Dems know that this plan won’t work on just the state level, and they therefore won’t support it on the state level, but that doesn’t mean they won’t support it on the national level.
Their reasoning for why it won’t work on the state level, but it does work on the national level, goes thus: If you adopt it on the state level, the higher taxes will just make those who can afford healthcare move to other states, leaving only those who can’t afford it to pay the higher taxes. If you adopt it on the national level, then they’ve got nowhere to run.
In other words, this program is so bad, that the only way you can even get it passed is to force every state to have the bad policy so that none of them are at a competitive disadvantage vis-a-vis each other. Of course, the big problem is that it will put the whole nation at a competitive disadvantage.
—yep—it’s just another shovelful out of our national grave—
” “These corporate guys, they can’t avoid this tax,” “
The nasty little secret that NO politician hopes we figure out —
Corporations don’t *pay* taxes — they *collect* taxes from (you guessed it by now, didn’t ya?) thee ‘n me..
—with a tip of the hat to Ronald Reagan—
Where do they think businesses would get funds to pay for these increase taxes? Notice, with all DBM/dem ideas the little guy, the poor consumer always ends up paying!
” —with a tip of the hat to Ronald Reagan— “
Yup — unfortunately not very many of us great unwashed actually understood what he said...
It’s just so much easier to believe that we’re “sticking it to the eeeeeevil (apologies to the FReeper with a similar name) corporations” than that we’re shooting ourselves in the foot......
Same as Mitt’s plan in MA?
Did Obama have a hand in this plan in Illinois?
With “free” health care nearly every mother will haul little Johnny into the emergency room for every scratch and run-in with poison ivy.
Then after bigger corporate taxes can’t pay to treat a million little Johnnys, small businesses will get hit for more taxes, followed by bigger income taxes, taxes on pop, burgers, cigarettes and SUVs and then property taxes will double or triple to pay for little Johnny.
And to think that assorted quacks engaged in medical fraud is bad now, wait until health care is “free” and nobody checks their medical bills for unecessary tests, unbundling and other tricks. Some of these hospitals should fly the Jolly Rogers flag from the doorway and have parrots on staff.
I don’t know, but let’s say he did because it is a liberals plan.
Every one in IL (except poor Governor Rod) knew this was a bad idea.
Except offshore.
Drudge said last night that thee is a stealth plan in Congress to double fed cigarette taxes. On socialized medicine, they also outlaw all private practice, but in every country they are having to relax that because socialism does not work.
Yep - I sent all the reps and state senators in my area a bunch of nastygrams about this legislation - not just my own for the area in which I reside, but also those surrounding districts. And then I blasted off a scathing letter to the Governor’s office telling him I would take my business out of the State of Illinois if this legislation got passed.
As for national Democrats, Presidential candidate John Edwards has already proposed a huge tax increase to pay for national health care. At least he's honest about what such promises require, but we doubt it will help his Presidential prospects. Illinois Senator Barack Obama has been silent on his Governor's tax implosion, but someone should get him on the record. And Hillary Clinton, well, we can't wait to see how "universal" her promises will be.
To liberals, the purpose of taxes is not to collect revenue, but to redistribute income. Under such schemes, income is not redistributed to the needy per se, but rather to members of the coalition of political supporters. There is never the intent of helping people in the sense that non-politicians think of “people”, i.e. individuals and families.
The illusion of popular support must be managed carefully- the coalition member groups mobilize under a variety of banners that conjure mental images of ordinary citizens speaking out. But the connections between all the groups shouldn’t be too blatant- it must be a “united front” rather than a “popular front”. Popular support is a convenient cover for running a legal racket enforced by th epolice power of the state. When popular support erodes, the motivations behind the taxation scheme become apparent.
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