Kim Weckwert
If this health care bill being rammed through the House of Representatives seems too good to be true, well, it is! Our President and his administration have been telling us what they think we want to hear, not what we need to know. It's no wonder that there are a few Americans walking around carrying signs stating, “America deserves health care” or “I support Obama's health care plan.” They haven't been told the entire truth of the matter. In short, they've been “played!”
Common sense dictates — because of all of the bribes and arm twisting going on in Washington — this isn't the right reform bill for our country. If this reform bill were truly good for everyone and not just a few Americans, I feel sure that our elected officials wouldn't be reduced to giving in to coercion and being “bought off” by party leaders who distribute money for their districts to gain their vote.
While we don't know every aspect of what's in the current bill that Nancy Pelosi says "Congress must pass, so that Americans can find out what's in it,” let's look at 10 items consistently mentioned, no matter what form it's been taking:
1) Ten years worth of tax increases to pay for only six years worth of benefits. These taxes total $500 billion over 10 years and many of these taxes will be paid by Americans earning less than $200,000 a year, despite the President's pledge to avoid such taxes.
2) A $750 penalty per worker charged to employers who fail to provide government-sanctioned insurance.
3) A 10-20 percent penalty will be imposed for early withdrawal from your Health Savings Account (HSA).
4) A tax on name brand drugs totalling $2.3 billion.
5) A tax on medical devices totaling $19.2 billion.
6) Small business owners bear the bulk of tax increases, thus passing them on to consumers and raising the cost of goods and services.
7) Almost 100 percent of entitlement programs are bankrupt, yet this health care bill will take $500 billion from Medicare, which is already on track to go bankrupt in 2017, to create a new government insurance entitlement program. The CBO (non-partisan Congressional Budget Office) reports that, "To describe the full amount of savings as both improving the government's ability to pay future Medicare benefits and financing new spending outside of Medicare would essentially double-count a large share of those savings and thus overstate the improvement in the government's fiscal position" In other words, we don't have the money to pay for both Medicare and a new government insurance entitlement, too!
8) The CBO consistently reports higher health insurance premium increases for non-group premium holders at a rate of $300 per year for individuals and $2,500 per year for families. Congressman Dick Durbin(D-Ill) verified this last week.
9) The CBO consistently confirms up to 10 million people will lose their employer-provided coverage.
10) Senate and House bills do not contain or lower health care costs. Both bills raise the cost of health care.
These 10 items mean that everyone will be affected, directly or indirectly, by the tax increases designed to "offset" the cost of this new entitlement bill. Many small business owners can't afford the cost of doing business that added taxation will bring or to pay the penalties for not offering government-sanctioned insurance, and they will be forced to lay off workers and/or increase their prices. They will have to pass the costs on to you through higher product/service costs. Eventually, many of these small business may be forced to permanently close their doors, causing more unemployment. Also, with the popularity of Medicare, will those receiving benefits look forward to receiving fewer of those benefits and/or being forced to pay for government-sanctioned insurance, too? I doubt it.
Unemployment, like entitlement programs, are at a record high. Our leaders should be focused on job creation, not disguising a new set of taxation in the form of health care reform that will perpetuate the unemployment problem. I think that we all can agree that we need reform, but we need reform that will create a better situation for our citizens as a whole. While I admire those who stand up for what they believe in, I admire and respect those who research the issues before they stand up and speak out. Knowledge is power, but information with no factual basis is dangerous. If you believe America deserves health care but can't back up that belief with a legitimate statement of fact supporting that belief, then you've been played! Learn what you need to know, not what you want to hear, and then join us on the Freedom Line on Friday from 12:15 p.m.-1:15 p.m. We are a group of informed citizens from all walks of life who are proponents of health care reform that won't bankrupt America. We feel that future generations of Americans don't deserve to inherit a" legacy of debt and poverty" by way of the current health care proposals. Also, small business, which is the true job engine of America, doesn't deserve to shoulder the majority of the financial burden. The cost of not knowing the entire truth outweighs the benefits of believing and acting upon half-truths.
America deserves better!
