July 18, 2012: Our readers write

 Hidden taxation

In 2009 when President Barack Obama was actively trying to sell the Affordable Health Care Act, now known as Obamacare, he repeatedly said the mandate was backed by a penalty, not a tax. Now that the Supreme Court, acting on arguments from White House lawyers stating it was a tax, has ruled it a tax. This turns out to be one of 20 other new taxes ever so skillfully hidden in Obamacare that “had to be passed so we could find out what is in it.” While some are aimed at businesses and whose cost we be passed along to all consumers, others target the public. Some examples of these are:

• 2.3 percent excise tax on medical devices
• 10 percent excise tax on tanning salons
• 40 percent excise tax on “Cadillac” health plans
• Increase to 10 percent from 7.5 percent for writing off health care expenses
• Limit on spending from Health Savings Accounts to $2500 per year
• $87 billion increase in Medicare payroll taxes.
• Mandate tax of 1 percent to 2.5 percent of AGI for not getting a government approved health insurance plan

While I have no doubt that many like this plan, as it involves getting more “free stuff” from the government that others(known as taxpayers) will have to pay for. For those who work and pay their own way, do you really want to pay the increased taxes now and those coming to support this? If not, and you do not like how the leaders of the Democratic Party have repeatedly lied to you on this issue and others, then the answer is simple. To replace Obamacare, we must first replace Obama.

Ken Randall

Radcliff

Health care is not ‘mooching’

Although I doubt if it occurs to them, right wing critics of the evolving health care system come perilously close to putting themselves in some unpleasant boxes. Take a recent column by Jim Waters where he wrote about “moochers” who live “unhealthy lifestyles.” He was referring to people who have neither the personal wealth nor health insurance to pay for medical treatment. What to do with them when the health begins to seriously deteriorate? A truthful conservative answer would be, “nothing.” Pushing right-wing thinking to its logical endpoints leads to letting people die when they can’t pay for the care that would save them.

There is a law that says people can’t be turned away when they present themselves (at hospital emergency rooms) in need of medical care. How many on the right applaud this law? If they’d come clean, conservatives would step forward and advocate for overturning it. If it were stricken, there’d be no more moochers, or rather, would-be moochers would have an early end.

The usual right-wing rhetoric cackles on about personal freedom and individual liberty implying that people have the right to do basically whatever pops into their heads. This is what is so seductive about casually listening to conservative blathering. The do-whatever-you-want message sinks in quickly and sweetly but how often is it accompanied by the encouragement to add a healthy dose of responsibility to the process? Not often because acting prudently takes some of the fun out of going off freely.

Right-wingers get a lot of mileage from their freedom rant, but look closer. Water complained that people “choose” to pursue “unhealthy lifestyles.” Shouldn’t a dedicated conservative stand up for a person’s right to make a free personal choice to, say, eat all the junk food his stomach can digest? Instead he came down hard on “Twinkie” eaters. (Is that a “food police” badge bulging under Jim’s coat?) Waters appears to look forward to a time when medical freeloaders will make choices that lessen the need for expensive medical care. But what if they don’t? When it comes to medical insurance and subsequent medical care, the Affordable Care Act is trying to lend a hand. It requires all of us (including moochers) to get insurance or pay a penalty for not having it.

The conservative “Kool-Aid” is tasty, but stop and think before taking a gulp.

K.G. Anderson

White Mills