Cross-posted at DailyKos as an extremely low impact diary. I can't help but feel that this topic will have a great deal of impact in years to come.
I'm going to leave the politics out of this diary. This is an inquiry about the outcome of the Senate version of Health Care reform. I've been asking my Senate representatives for answers and even through press office contacts getting nowhere.
As a New Yorker, these are my questions;
I'm inquiring about the Senate plan to finance health care reform. That 40% excise tax that employers will pay on health care cost above $8,500 will include states as employers, correct?
Now I understand from Governor Paterson that our state will not be getting any Medicaid relief from the Fed because we already cover New Yorkers that are 133% above the poverty line.
Will even more money be going from the state to the fed for civil service employees who are above the $8,500 line?
And what about New York City? The city has a huge amount of employees.
If that's the case then this represents a lot of money that will force raised taxes, lowered services or the cost being passed to the workers.
And with inflation coming into play it will only get worse. I read the GAO report and there is nothing about inflation adjustments. Or did I miss something? Is there anything in the bill to protect workers from inflation?
Members of the House Populist Caucus, chaired by Representative Bruce Braley (IA-01), held a press conference on Thursday to endorse a bill that would "assess a small fee on Wall Street day traders to pay down the national deficit and invest in America's middle class families."
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities economists just confirmed the trends of the last 8 years -- Most of the the Economic Gains went to the very Wealthy, while the rest of us struggled to just get by
Two-thirds of the nation's total income gains from 2002 to 2007 flowed to the top 1 percent of U.S. households, and that top 1 percent held a larger share of income in 2007 than at any time since 1928, according to an analysis of newly released IRS data by economists Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez.
During those years, the Piketty-Saez data also show, the inflation adjusted income of the top 1 percent of households grew more than ten times faster than the income of the bottom 90 percent of households.
Today, there was a lot of news on the Healthcare front. It seems as if everyone is having some kind of problem or another with the way things are going. We have Corporate Democrats and Republicans who seemingly want no reform and are stalling for time, we have others calling for the states to take responsibility for a public option, and we have union middle-class workers crying foul for being expected to sacrifice even more as the drama rolls on.
How to save $1.3 trillion a year, get healthcare reform, and lose weight doing it Michael Lemke, Special Interests Examiner - Sept 3, 2009
Ending the Bush tax cut for the top 1%would save $132 billion next year alone.
While the rich have been getting richer at a staggering rate both under Clinton and under Bush, the lower 80% of US households have been stagnating or getting poorer. We have reach the highest level of income inequality in US history, surpassing even the obscene levels of the late 1920s.
Well, that's one sure fire way to help pay for Health Care --
Repeal the Bush Give-Away to the Top 1%, or just let them sunset, as the legislation requires!
January 1, 2011, is one Sunset, that can't come soon enough!
All over the country right-wing folks have made a special effort to make it to various townhalls to protest- and make sure that anyone with positive things to say about the healthcare bill do not get heard. These folks are angry about many things, from what they percieve as a "government take-over" of healthcare, to the debt and deficits they see as being caused by Barack Obama, and most ridiculously to their parents and grandparents being put before Obama's "death panels" whose sole purpose they believe is to murder the elderly and sick children who are not worth the cost to keep alive.
(coal and Kentucky politics... - promoted by poligirl)
The debate over Coal was raging before I was born and probably will be long after I am gone. Personally I do feel that we should move away from Carbon based energy as soon as possible but I realize that in my state many people are employed by this industry. Although living in Western Kentucky I never considered myself as personally impacted as some but when lives and livelihoods are in debate you can understand why passions can run pretty high.
(how to pay for health care reform... - promoted by poligirl)
I caught the Randi Rhodes show today. She was suggesting that all we have to do to pay for Health Care Reform, including a Public Option, was to just Roll Back the Bush Tax Cuts!
What a Brilliant Idea!
Thanks Rhandi ... (So glad you're back btw)
As it turns out, we just need to let the Bush Tax Cuts Expire, when they are due to "sunset" (ie. Don't Renew them!)
When Would the President's Tax Cuts Expire? by Andrew M. Grossman - April 21, 2004
In 2001 and 2003, President George W. Bush proposed and Congress passed a series of tax cuts to reinvigorate the economy and reduce the government's burden on workers' paychecks. Because of opposition to these measures from some in Congress, they were implemented as temporary tax cuts, all of which will expire by January 1, 2011.
(the wealthy pay more taxes sometimes... - promoted by poligirl)
No one LIKES paying Taxes, still we do it, year after year, because most of us still have a sense of Patriotic Duty. This instinctive "love of Country" seems to have evaded some however, who often "love their Wealth" more than their Country ...
Experts estimate that Americans now have more than $1 trillion in assets offshore and illegally evade between $40 and $70 billion in U.S. taxes each year through the use of offshore tax schemes. U.S. corporations are estimated to illegally evade another $30 billion in taxes each year through offshore tax dodges. America's working people bear the burden of this $100 billion tax gap.
All over the nation we just witnesses many tea parties. Tea meaning, Taxed Enough Already. In my own hometown of Paducah, Ky we witnessed one such spectacle. In the end we must ask ourselves just what did this really prove? These protests on spending and running up debt. Did all this fire and anger not spread up a little too late??
(a use for the stimulus... - promoted by poligirl)
I am cross posting this for a fellow blogger, jenyum at DailyKos, who is also a great Tacoma activist.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>
I am deep in the throes of campaigning for a local school bond election. Every year or two our school district has to undertake this ritual, the legacy of a state constitutional amendment that limited property taxes to 1% of assessed value, unless voters approve a bond levy by a 60% majority. "So what?" You say. "Shouldn't the voters have a say?" Well, yes, in theory, but in practice it means that necessary school construction projects are put off until our schools are literally crumbling around the kids. It also means that in times like these, when construction prices are low and construction jobs are desperately needed, voters balk at the idea of any additional property taxes.
But all of that is just talk. It is easy enough to say "fine, but not now" to school construction until you see the reality of what some of our kids are asked to live with every day.
This is a hallway ceiling at Hunt Middle School in Tacoma, Washington. Large parts of the school feature water damage just as severe. Maintenance staff dutifully replace ceiling panels and repaint when they can, but the water just seeps right through.
