So screams the headline for the story that AP has tossed across the wire. Most outlets I have checked have stuck with the AP headline.
Edwards' Health Care Plan Includes Taxes; Edwards' Universal Health Care Plan Includes Raising Taxes, Would Cost Up to $120B Per Year
Yes, that is the headline for the story. Exactly. Well, there are so many things wrong with this right from the start. Disregard the pro HMO spin on it, which is pretty obvious, but the $120 billion is the outer range of the number. Estimates are $90 billion to $120 billion. To cover every fucking (pardon my profanity) body. George Bush just asked for $240 billion more to wage his mess in Mesopotamia, and AP is screaming from their headlines about something that at it's worst will cost much less than Bush's failed war. Why is that do you think?
The plan could cost up to $120 billion a year, and the candidate acknowledged it would require higher taxes.
Ya think? Would you have liked it better if he said we were just going to put it all on an IOU tab like Bush has done with our budget for the last six years? I see, this is a dangerous proposition because John Edwards wants everybody to have health coverage for less money than Iraq costs, and he wants to pay for it. The madness, the madness.
The bottom line is we're asking everybody to share in the responsibility of making health care work in this country. Employers, those who are in the medical insurance business, employees, the American people everyone will have to contribute in order to make this work," the 2004 vice presidential nomineesaid Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press." "Yes, we'll have to raise taxes. The only way you can pay for a health care plan that costs anywhere from $90 (billion) to $120 billion is there has to be a revenue source," the former North Carolina senator said.
Are you a member of the communist party Mr. Edwards? I want names. Way way at the bottom of the story, AP acknowledges his tax proposal is to repeal the tax cuts Bush has given to people who make over $200,000 a year, and to get the IRS to go after wealthy tax cheats instead of auditing blue collar workers for a change. You read the headline though, and it is telling you that Edwards is about to raise your taxes.
Then the HMO's and pharmaceutical concerns will be out soon in concert with the GOP and the media to convince people that if you make $38,000 a year, Edwards is about to slam you with taxes. This is how it works.
AP "told the truth" here. It's truthiness though. They emphasized the general notion of taxes being raised, and the most pessimistic accounting of costs. All are facts. But it reshapes the context into making it a negative story. I wonder if the fact that the HMO's and the pharmaceutical companies spend a shitload of money advertising on all of these subscribers to AP has anything to do with the fact that Edwards' plan is being spun negatively.
Update Philgoblue in the comments gives the link to John Edwards'Health Care Proposal which was just released as a pdf file.