Jerry Nabs Tax Supporters
John Seiler:
One good thing — if you can call it that — about Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposed $7 billion tax: It is revealing who is the “Establishment,” both Democrat and Republican, that really runs this state.
With the Republican Party basically moribund, Democrats are the only show in town. So the Establishment will funnel to them campaign cash, for candidates and favored initiatives.
That doesn’t mean the donors favor a particular donor or initiative, or Democrats in general. It means they’re buying influence with the powerful.
So it is with Brown’s tax. It’s unlikely to pass. Opponents will paint it as funding the cushy pensions of government retirees and the ridiculous High-Speed Rail boondoggle. Brown will insist, “No! It’s just going to schools! It’s guaranteed!” But few will believe him. All government money is fungible.
But the Establishment wants to be in good graces with Brown. Although the measure won’t pass, funneling money into it is a signal of membership in the Establishment. It’s ironic how Brown, who for decades has portrayed himself as a maverick, quirky “outsider,” has in his dotage become the ultimate Establishment “insider.”
Brown’s group is called, Californians to Protect Schools, Universities and Public Safety. It should be called, “Californians to Gouge Taxpayers to Fund Lavish Pensions.”
Here are some of the Establishment donors to the tax-gouging initiative, as reported by the Mercury-News:
* $500,000: California Association of Hospitals and Health Systems; now I know why a friend went to have his appendix carved out, and it cost $40,000 for a three-day stay: the hospitals are splurging on political influence peddling;
* $250,000: state building trades; now we know why housing, despite the recent decline, remains so unaffordable in Taxifornia; the money is splurged on stuff like this;
* $100,000: Blue Shield of California; my health insurance; thanks a lot for jacking up my insurance rates to pay for jacking up my taxes; that’s just sicko;
* $300,000: four Indian tribes; time to free the Indians and make them separate nations; then they’ll become tax havens like the Cayman Islands, instead of backing higher taxes;
* $250,000: Occidental Petroleum Corporation; Lenin pal Armand Hammer’s old outfit.
* $250,000: the American Beverage Association; how about a booze tax, fellas? Or maybe we should bring back Prohibition? Where is Carrie Nation when we need her?
Feb. 1, 2012
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Lot’s of tax proposition support from the hospitals and health care system, eh? Not surprising since the health care system is so heavily subsidized by the government. Somebody has to pay for all those uninsured patients. The hospitals and docs are afraid that the reimbursement rates are going to get slashed if the taxes don’t pass. Hospitals wouldn’t kick in $500,000 unless there were some payoff or benefit involved.
You see the scandals at that gov run Monterey Hospital?????? Yikes.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-high-pensions-20120201,0,2481165.story
OPM baby-the magic words to wasting $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Romney care……or Obamacare…..either you die waiting for treatment or starve to death from paying taxes and premiums….
You lose….
Here is the problem with healthcare:
In 1980 medicare and medicaid cost the taxpayers $53B. In 2011 the taxpayers spent over $800B to fund both programs. That is roughly a 9% exponential annual increase over the last 30 years. There is no reason to believe that the rate of growth will slow for the next decade, meaning that in approximately 8-9 years that cost will double to $1.6T. That is half of the nation’s total annual budget. People talk about health care rationing like it were some kind of evil curse. Unfortunately the nation will have to accept it either voluntarily or by the force of mathematical law. Americans take for granted that 75-80 years olds are entitled to their heart bypass surgeries and hip replacements. Juanita assumes that she can slip across the border in her 7th month and deliver a special needs baby in an American hospital costing the taxpayers upwards of $2M – then with the taxpayer’s blessings get free housing, food and medical care on this side of the border. That stuff simply is not sustainable. The numbers don’t work. We’re not the driving economic force we were in 1945. Unless we start another world war and incapacitate the other major global economies rationing is really our only alternative.
“Romney care……or Obamacare…..either you die waiting for treatment or starve to death from paying taxes and premiums….
You lose…”
But the problem we face with the status quo is that health care will become completely unaffordable for the average american whose wages have remained stagnant for the last 12 years while health care costs have increased 9% annually. Currently we spend 18% of our GDP on health care. Unless the HC system is reformed in 2025 we will spend 25% of GDP on HC. Half of all bankrupcies in the US are due to medical debts. Other civilized nations spend 10% of their GDP on HC while no one is forced into bankrupcy for getting sick. The status quo ain’t working in America. Obamacare is certainly not the answer. It will only worsen the problem for most Americans. As far as rationing is concerned – rationing is rampant in our current system. Patients must get pre-authorization from insurance companies for many treatments that are often denied. And 40M Americans without medical insurance is certainly a form of rationing. It’s a national shame that one of the world’s richest nation provides such a lousy HC system for it’s citizens.
Once government controls your health care and hundreds of thousands are unemployed from private health care and insurance….rationing and taxes to the moon are your horror forever!!!