A bad move

Bush health plan will raise taxes

President Bush will propose his new healthcare plan tonight. Under this plan, health insurance will be grouped as taxable income, specifically for any plan over 15K dollars in coverage. The added revenue will be used to give tax breaks for health care plans under this amount. So it will allow some to purchase new plans, and encourage others to opt for cheaper plans. There are currently 47 million people without health insurance. This plan will drop that number by 3 million. Not a very good improvement. But the plan will lead to a tax increase for some 30 million Americans, myself included, which makes it a very bad idea.

I have already outlined a solution to the healthcare crisis. It’s simple in concept, but difficult in the fact that it would require across-the-aisle concessions and hard work from BOTH parties. That will never happen. So, instead, we get plans like this. More taxes, few results, just so some politicians can say "we allowed 3 million Americans to get health insurance" at the next presidential campaign. Raising taxes should be off the table permanently. The government has plenty of money, it's up to them to figure out how best to spend it. The US taxpayer is NOT a bottomless pit and it's time we cut Washington's allowance.

Bush’s approval rating continues to fall, so maybe this an attempt to appeal to the Democratic base. But, those people will never approve of his Presidency, even if he walked across the Reflecting Pool and bounded over the Washington Monument. But plans like this do nothing but further alienate his own base, and the few conservatives who still support him will start to dwindle. Someone is giving him bad advice, or perhaps he just isn’t listening to good advice.

Don’t get me wrong. I like Bush. In fairness, he’s done a good job considering the circumstances. Again, I feel he has endured the MOST difficult presidency since Abraham Lincoln, who wasn’t exactly popular among the masses either. So, in light of things, I think he has been given a raw deal and extremely unfair treatment from the media. But alienating his base is a bad move on his part, so is raising taxes regardless of how he paints it. He did it with a Supreme Court nominee, he’s done it with illegal immigration, and now he seems to be doing it with health care. How long until his approval is in the single digits?

Hopefully, he’ll turn away from this plan. Read my blog, Mr. President. I have the answer for the healthcare problems right here.