Dear Congress: How To Pay for A Public Healthcare Plan

[berni_mccoy]

I'm really starting to get tired of hearing my republican friends ask "How are we going to pay for this?". I know some members of Congress are probably sweating this point as their uninformed constituents ask them the same thing. A recent toon comes to mind:


That toon, in and of itself, garners a somewhat unexpected reaction from some of my rw-friends: "Ok, ok, Bush was an epic failure who wasted 3 trillion dollars on Iraq. I get it. Tell me Obama isn't going to mess up and waste $1 trillion or show me how I can be confident about the government doing something without screwing it up." There is no longer any defense of the incredible mistakes called the Bush presidency or the Iraq war.

Well, I considered that. What happens if the next president after Obama is a Republican who wants to gut the public option? What comes to mind is what happened to Bush when he tried to privatize SS. It would be a really bad political move and it would fail. Even when Bush had complete control of Congress, he couldn't convince his rw-law makers to dismantle SS.

That tells me that SS is working pretty darn well, despite the funding shortfall it currently has (money will run out sometime in the future). And that problem, is relatively easily solved (raise the cap). Which is probably why we have to get this done now to give time to appreciate the benefits of such a plan before the next Bush-like president comes along (Heaven's forbid).

But inevitably, the conversation turns back to spending is bad and where is the money going to come from.

I would suggest that members of Congress consider the following:

1. More Americans are dying each year because they cannot afford healthcare than all of the terrorist attacks in the history of the U.S. combined (see: http://journals.democraticunderground.com/berni_mccoy/691 ).
2. The U.S. spends more on "Defense" than all other countries combined.

I think the answer is clear on how we should be paying for a Public Healthcare Plan.

[ThirdWorldJohn]

1. Health Care in the USA today is $6000/capita. Think about that figure. And we are ranked 37th.

[denem]

2. Taxes: Sick, disabled, bankrupt people earn less income,

are less productive, hit their employer's bottom line, and may end up in Medicaid with then catastrophic illnesses. This always seems to be left out of the equation,

[grantcart]

3. First we need to get it passed and then as debt become more and more

difficult to finance it will become easier and easier to eliminate exotic and totally redundant expensive weapon systems.

[berni_mccoy]

4. I agree, but I fear that it won't get passed if this question goes unanswered

Showing that more people because of no public healthcare than enemies of the state might loosen a few RW votes on this issue. Maybe not, but maybe so.

[SKKY]

5. The things we could have fixed in this country with that 3 trillion dollars...

...heck, just give me 2 trillion. Here's how I would have spent that money:

1. Health Care Reform = 1 Trillion Dollars
2. Begin major upgrades to National electric grid = 350 Billion
3. Invest in Wind/Solar/Hydroelectric Power = 350 Billion
4. High Speed Rail Nation-wide = 150 Billion
5. Tax incentives for those who purchase alternative fuel vehicles = 150 Billion

I only addressed Health Care and Energy because right now, I think those are the two biggest issues facing our country.

[berni_mccoy]

6. Sad isn't it? To think what could have been accomplished.