Let me get this straight: House Democrats needed more pages than a Harry Potter novel just to say three little words? Because the headline I pulled out of the massive health care reform bill they released yesterday was "Tax the rich."
I know this tune plays well to the populist sentiment running rampant in this country, but as a mantra of fiscal federal policy, it falls woefully short. And never mind the hints of class warfare here. Better evacuate the Bastille, because, to paraphrase a forgotten French count, this isn't a rebellion, it's a revolution.
(And I also know there are a host of other issues with this proposed legislation, such as employer and individual mandates, benefit caps and the dreaded public-plan alternative, but what bugs me the most today is the funding. Maybe it's because I had to pick up lunch yesterday.)
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The House wants to tax the richest 2 million to extend health care to 37 million. Honestly, in what system is that fair? And we made fun of Bush's math? Look at Social Security: As of July 2009, there were roughly 56 million people in this country collecting some type of Social Security benefit, paid for by the 140 million working and funding the program with their taxes. See where I'm going with this?
So how do those numbers even add up?
Well, they don't. That 5.4 percent tax the Democrats want to ram through, at best, will only generate $500 billion over the next decade. Which sounds great – until you notice that the final tab for all this reform actually adds up to $1.5 trillion (or so). Oh, but wait, the doctors agreed to "save" a couple hundred million. And the pharmaceutical companies, they're gonna start recycling or something and save another couple hundred million, too. Wow, add all those best-case scenarios together and you get almost $1 trillion. Hmm, I know I can't manage my checkbook without a graphing calculator and a legal pad, but it looks like we're still half a trillion bucks short. Am I the only one who has a problem with that?
And let's not forget that the feds are worse than teenagers at estimating costs. I can guarantee you right now that $1.5 trillion figure will at least double within the first year. You don't need to look any further than Massachusetts to see how quickly these costs can spiral out of control.
Tomorrow I'll take a look at the mandates tucked into this bill. Until then, viva la revoluci?n!
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