Despite President Obama's repeated assurances that only taxpayers earning more than $250,000 a year will be made to pay higher taxes to support his health care reforms, a striking 68% of Americans recently surveyed by the Gallup Poll said that they expect to pay higher income taxes by the final year of President Obama's term (in two years). According to the Los Angeles Times yesterday, this could help explain widespread uncertainty about the President's plans for overhauling the nation's health care and health insurance industries.And yet so much of the mainstream news media continues to attribute this public ambivalence about these proposed reforms to allegedly broad-based "misunderstandings" about fringe issues like "death panels." In addition to being questionable journalism, that's also insultingly patronizing.
This poll indicates that the public clearly understands what the President refuses to admit and what the media is apparently unwilling to publicize: that we simply cannot extend health insurance coverage to another 47 million Americans, while explicitly not cutting anyone's Medicare benefits in any way or submitting ourselves to rationing of any sort, and expect to pay for that solely by "cutting waste" and by imposing a small income tax increase on the top 4% of earners in the United States (i.e. somebody else).
You simply can't get something for nothing. The people know that and are clearly voicing their concerns. But neither the President nor the media seem to be listening.
Posts
The whole idea that taypayers who make less than $250,000 will not see their taxes rasied on red cent is an out-right lie. You see, with Obama, he likes to tell partial truths. Yes, income taxes may not go up, but what about cigarette taxes? And cap-and-trade, which is a tax on utilities but will be passed on to us. True, he may not add any direct taxes, but they will find taxes for businesses, who will then oass them on to us. Remmeber the "If you like your doctor, if you lifke your plan, you'lll be able to keep it" rallying cry. true, the government may not force you onto a public plan, but he knows full well that employers will drop a good amount of their employees on to the public plan. He lies by omission. What did we expect? Change!!! No one bothered to ask what kind of change, and now we all suffer
ReplyDelete