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Wisconsin Exposes the Cost of Universal Healthcare

Discussion in 'Political Debate & Discussion' started by carpro, Jul 24, 2007.

  1. carpro

    carpro Well-Known Member
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    http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110010374
    Cheese Headcases

    Wisconsin reveals the cost of "universal" health care.
    Tuesday, July 24, 2007 12:01 a.m. EDT

    When Louis Brandeis praised the 50 states as "laboratories of democracy," he didn't claim that every policy experiment would work. So we hope the eyes of America will turn to Wisconsin, and the effort by Madison Democrats to make that "progressive" state a Petri dish for government-run health care.

    This exercise is especially instructive, because it reveals where the "single-payer," universal coverage folks end up. Democrats who run the Wisconsin Senate have dropped the Washington pretense of incremental health-care reform and moved directly to passing a plan to insure every resident under the age of 65 in the state. And, wow, is "free" health care expensive. The plan would cost an estimated $15.2 billion, or $3 billion more than the state currently collects in all income, sales and corporate income taxes. It represents an average of $510 a month in higher taxes for every Wisconsin worker.

    Employees and businesses would pay for the plan by sharing the cost of a new 14.5% employment tax on wages. Wisconsin businesses would have to compete with out-of-state businesses and foreign rivals while shouldering a 29.8% combined federal-state payroll tax, nearly double the 15.3% payroll tax paid by non-Wisconsin firms for Social Security and Medicare combined.

    This employment tax is on top of the $1 billion grab bag of other levies that Democratic Governor Jim Doyle proposed and the tax-happy Senate has also approved, including a $1.25 a pack increase in the cigarette tax, a 10% hike in the corporate tax, and new fees on cars, trucks, hospitals, real estate transactions, oil companies and dry cleaners. In all, the tax burden in the Badger State could rise to 20% of family income, which is slightly more than the average federal tax burden. "At least federal taxes pay for an Army and Navy," quips R.J. Pirlot of the Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce business lobby.

    SNIP

    The last line of defense against this plan are the Republicans who run the Wisconsin House. So far they've been unified and they recently voted the Senate plan down. Democrats are now planning to take their ideas to the voters in legislative races next year, and that's a debate Wisconsinites should look forward to. At least Wisconsin Democrats are admitting how much it will cost Americans to pay for government-run health care. Would that Washington Democrats were as forthright.
     
  2. DQuixote

    DQuixote New Member

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    It's what Hillary Rodam Clinton proposes for all of us. This is the test state for her program. More of the Great Society, which plunged us into ever-increasing debt to pay for programs run by bureaucrats in D.C. It is estimated that her program will require 80,000 federal or federally-controlled employees.

    Europe has tried socialized medicine for decades, and it is failing across the countries there. The bureaucrats want to reduce benefits for nearly free healthcare, but the public, so accustomed to it, resists. Little by little, pay as you go insurance is being implemented in Europe, along with even more taxes, reduced benefits, and tighter controls by their parliments.

    The credit card mentality of medicare, known to us in the USA, is ready to collapse. Just put more on the card, pay the interest, put more on the card. Trouble is, there are only two taxpayers for each recipient now.

    The admitted national debt is ELEVEN TRILLION DOLLARS. The amounts kept off the budget pushes it much, much higher. What do we do? We borrow money from China! From Europe! Then we pay only the interest!

    Come quickly, Lord Jesus! Get me outa here! :praying:
     
  3. billwald

    billwald New Member

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    Cost more than the Bush War? You Rs think we can afford the war.
     
  4. Hope of Glory

    Hope of Glory New Member

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    But...

    But...

    But...

    It'll be different this time.

    (At least that's what those who are in favor of these boondoggles keep saying.)
     
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