Crossposted from Hillbilly Report.
Well, the Senate Finance Committee has voted to pass the junk reforms of Max Baucus. In a way this may be good, because now that Baucus has his Corporate Welfare bill through his committee, maybe the reconciliation process can bring about something that more resembles real reform. While I still honestly believe that single-payer is the only thing that will deliver the reform to our system we need, I am hoping the Senate Finance version gets a serious facelift in reconciliation. Anything that mandates coverage for Americans without a strong, viable, robust, or whatever you want to call it public option is political suicide for the Democratic Party. Of course if they are that stupid, they deserve the defeat they will get for acting like watered-down Republicans.
One of the main sticking points in reconciliation will undoubtedly be how we are going to pay for any reform that is ultimately passed. There have been a wide range of ideas, but many are better than others. If we want real reform and are serious about enacting it, we simply are going to have to ask those who profited so much from the booming economy, and were the only ones bailed out when it crashed to pay more.
Yes, we are going to have to ask the rich to pay their fair share of the burden and (gasps) are not going to be able to expect working America to sacrifice everything for this reform for once. While "taxes" are an ugly word in the political arena, they are going to have to be part of reform if it is real reform. Consequently, there is only one group that can afford to pay more. The top one per-cent. While raising taxes may be unfathomable for many politicians, former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich recently spelled out three virtues of raising taxes on the wealthiest one per-cent as a way of paying for reform.
The first virtue was fairness:
A surtax on high-end taxpayers isn’t ideal — I’d prefer capping tax-free employer-provided health benefits or limiting deductions for the very rich — but a surtax isn’t all that bad, either. In fact, it has three big virtues.
First, it’s fair. According to the most recent data (for 2007), the wealthiest 1 percent of American households take home about 20 percent of total income — the highest percentage since 1928.
http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.c...
To me, this should be a no-brainer. I mean, the wealthiest one per-cent have been the only ones who profited from the Bush economy and were the only ones that were bailed out when it crashed. Before anyone opposes a tax increase on these folks they should look at their paychecks from 1998 and now. Have your wages increased dramatically?? Do you have more benefits now than then?? Did you recieve a huge bailout check when these very folks crashed the economy?? If you are like most working Americans and like myself I am sure the answers to all these questions were no.
These folks were the only ones that profited from the last few decades and they are also the only ones who have not been asked to sacrifice. Of course most of the bill should lie with them.
The second virtue Reich lists falls within simplicity:
Second virtue: A surtax is relatively easy to administer.
A surtax on the wealthy will be easy to administer. Not only is it the most fair way to pay for reform but it can be administered easily within the current tax code. America has provided them the vehicle for their wealth while they have done all they could do to stagnate wages and ship middle-class jobs to slave markets. It is time for them to share the fruits of America with Americans for once.
His third virtue is that Americans can easily understand that the wealthy who have fleeced the middle-class are finally being asked to sacrifice:
Third virtue (never to be underestimated): It’s easy to understand.
This is also a no-brainer for the middle-class. It is not hard to understand that the very wealthy have made their recent gains off the labors of American workers while constantly pushing them closer to poverty. They care not how working families survive as long as the greed that has allowed them to stagnate wages and ship jobs overseas is allowed to persist. They do not care about the economy, America, justice, or anything else as long as they can be the only ones in our country who see any gains. Unfortunately, they have been coddled too long by our government because they have bought and paid for politicians in both parties. One need only look at the bill written in the Senate Finance Committee to realize that.
What it boils down to for Democrats and Americans in general is are we going to seek fair, meaningful health insurance reform?? If we are, it cannot be the corporate welfare put foward in the Senate Finance Committee and it cannot be paid for on the backs of working America like everything else has been in the last several decades.
The rich and powerful have caused much of the problem by stagnating wages, outsourcing jobs that pay good wages and refusing to employ people on jobs that offer health insurance. God knows it was not because they could not afford it, they simply did not want to and were not forced to. They have enjoyed three decades or more of fleecing the American worker, taxpayer, and economy and now it is time for them to give something back to the people and system that allowed them to prosper.
Anything else to pay for the reforms we need is wrong, and should be opposed by Republican, Democrat and Independent alike. It is time for the wealthy to share the fruits of their labor and asking someone else to pay for reform would be just as unjust as mandating coverage without a vehicle to make the insurance companies bring down costs.