This is the tennis ball of the health care debate…..basck and forth….back and forth…..prez will raise taxes….no! there will be no new taxes on people making less than $250,000…..on and on and on and ………..
On a recent Sunday round of talk shows the leaders of the Obama economy seem to hint at the possibility of higher taxes down the road.
As reported by Peter Gorenstein of Health Information:
After Tim Geithner and Larry Summers opened the door to higher taxes to fight rising deficits and fund health-care reform on Sunday, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs scrambled to clear up the situation on Monday: “I don’t think any economist would believe that, in the environment that we’re in, that raising taxes on middle-class families would make any sense.”
“If we get a more balanced view of our balance sheet we’ll realize that if we spend our money well then these great extra expenditures are going to actually make our economy more productive in the future,” he says. Spending on technology, education and infrastructure “will generate revenues that will allow us in the future to pay back any borrowing or lower taxes.”
Besides, when it comes to health-care reform the Columbia economics professor claims we’re already paying a virtual tax. “Right now we’re often paying for it in hidden charges so it’s like a tax but it’s a hidden tax,” he says in reference to the costs associated with paying for 50 million uninsured Americans.
Bottom line: Stiglitz says like so many of our issues, the health-care problem is not going away: “If we don’t do [reform] today, the problems will fester, they’re going to get worse and worse and in 15 or 20 years we still have a very big problem and will be even more difficult to make the adjustments.”
Of course, we can find an economist that will take the other side of the equation. But I have said in the past that if health care fails this time as it did in ’94, then it will return in 20 years to take a bigger bite out of our butts. Yes, health care will be paid for..but personally, I have rather see my money go to providing health care to Americans than to see it used to foment war. But that is just me. I still feel that the American people, ALL of the people deserve the best from its government.
Hopefully, Americans realize that without income the government cannot provide any services that we, as Americans, are use to. Without income a budget is a worthless piece of paper.