Bigger concerns than 'just' the Health Care bill

Gianina - posted on 03/23/2010 ( 4 moms have responded )

Hello Moms,



I would like to share what my husband emailed me. As much as I am sadden regarding the HC Bill and how this will affect our children's future, I totally agree what my husband shared with me.

Gianina

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I have bigger concerns than “just” the health care bill. For nearly 30 years after Medicaid/Medicare and the Great Society programs, Congress was controlled by Democrats. While the current political thinking is that this bill is going to cost the Democrats control next year, I believe that that will either not happen, or it will be very temporary and that this will help create another 30 years of Democratic control. I reach that conclusion for four reasons:





1) The bill was scored as saving money over the next 20 years only because there are large future tax increases assumed and almost equally large cuts assumed for Medicare. Those events will never take place and any time in the future that any Republican suggests that the Democrats should fulfill their commitment, it will be Republicans who will be criticized as trying to cut benefits to the poorest and most needy among us.



2) The taxes and cuts that won’t happen were intended to more than offset the estimated trillion dollar cost of the new programs. But that figure is itself dubious -- experience with huge new governmental programs suggest that the actual costs will be somewhere between 2 and 10 times that. Once those huge spending programs get rolling, there will be no way for anyone to propose cuts to bring them back to the levels initially estimated. Google “third rail” of politics and see what has happened to anyone who tries to bring Social Security or Medicaid costs back towards any earlier set of projections.



3) Republicans are putting their hopes behind the argument that there will be pain from some of these new provisions felt in the early years with little benefits kicking in until three or four years from now. In reality, the handful of things that become effective immediately will affect only a small percentage, but those will be positive effects , e.g., people positively affected by the reforms that prohibit denial of coverage for pre-existing conditions. The premium increases that will result will lag a bit and not really be felt until after this year’s elections. The vast majority of people will go to the polls this November feeling like we have covered an additional 32 million people and it hasn’t really hurt me.



4) Virtually every possible argument that will arise over the next 30 years about this legislation will enable the Democrats to take the moral high ground while accusing Republicans at every step of being on the side of special interests against the “people.” Already, the Democrats appear to have successfully painted Republicans as siding with the insurance industry against the “people” despite the fact that the insurance industry was largely supportive of this legislation due to the mandate that will force some 30 million more people to buy health insurance.



So, with the potential for 30 more years of Democratic controls, I think we can foresee a long future ahead of us of anti-business, anti-growth, anti-wealth creation policies in the areas of individual and corporate taxes, environmental controls, affirmative action programs, other employment-related policies, etc.