Obama Demands Cheaper Health Care

Oh, Canada, we love your health care ways. Everyone is covered. You just wait for hundreds of days.

Oh, Canada we think your ways are great. The only nit we'll pick. You will die... while you wait.

President Obama loves the Canadian system of health care and is working diligently to implement it in the United States. Now the president who is hard pressed to come up with $17 billion in "savings" from a federal budget he has expanded by a thousand billion or so is demanding that the private health care system cut its costs by $2,000 billion.

Tax hikes may pay for health care

Senators discuss increasing fees on alcohol, tobacco, soda

BY RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR Associated Press Washington — Senators are con­sidering limiting — but not eliminat­ing — the tax-free status of employer­provided health benefits to help pay for President Barack Obama’s plan to provide coverage to 50 million unin­sured Americans. Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., said Tuesday that there are no easy options. Sen­ators began grappling with how to fi­nance guaranteed coverage, a corner­stone of Obama’s plan to overhaul the health care system. Independent ex­perts put the costs at $1.5 trillion over 10 years. Obama sees a world in which doc­tors and hospitals compete to offer quality service at lower costs, and the savings help cover the uninsured. Turning that vision into reality re- mains the biggest challenge for the president and his backers, because hard cash — not just ideas — is re­quired to cover upfront costs of ex­panding coverage. The president put health care in­dustry leaders on notice Tuesday that he expects them to fulfill their dra­matic offer of $2 trillion in savings over 10 years. “I will hold you to your pledge to get this done,” Obama said in a letter released by the White House that went to groups representing in­surers, hospitals, doctors, drug mak­ers and others. But those savings — even if the in­dustry delivers every penny — won’t all accrue to the government. So the fi­nancing package for Obama’s plan is likely to include a mix of tax increases and spending cuts in federal health programs. Among the possibilities: tax in­creases on alcoholic beverages, tobac­co products and sugary soft drinks, and restrictions on other health care­related tax breaks, such as flexible spending accounts. But some taxes don’t seem to be on the table, such as a federal sales levy to pay for health care or a new payroll tax. Congressional leaders say they want to pass legislation in the Senate and House this summer. On the controversial question of taxing health benefits, Baucus is stak­ing out a position that could put him at odds with Obama. The president adamantly opposed such taxes during the campaign, argu­ing they would undermine job-based coverage. Obama’s aides now say he’s open to suggestions from Congress, even if he criticized Republican presi­dential rival John Mc Cain for propos­ing a sweeping version of the same ba­sic idea. Baucus said he wants to modify the tax break, not abolish it. “We are not going to repeal it,” he said. Baucus suggested that the benefit could be limited by taxing health in­surance provided to high-income in­dividuals, although he did not specify at what income levels. He also said that plans offering rich benefits — for example, no co-payments or deducti­bles — might be taxed once their value exceeded a yet-to-be-determined threshold. Employer-provided health insur­ance is considered part of workers’ compensation, but unlike wages, it is not taxed. The forgone revenue to the federal government amounts to about $250 billion a year. “IWILL HOLD YOU TO YOUR PLEDGE TO GET THIS DONE.” President Obama, to health care industry on offer to save $2trillion

Pablo Martinez Monsivais /Associated Press Senate Finance Committee chairman Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., center, and Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, right, discuss overhauling the health care system.

So, let's get this straight... the president who has never actually run anything is telling the world's most dynamic health care system that it should destroy itself because he thinks it should be run his way... and we'll be taxed for that benefit.

IDIOCY: something notably stupid or foolish

That pretty much sums it up.

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