President Obama, congressional Democrats and labor leaders cut a sweetheart deal last week. They agreed to create a loophole for a new 40 percent tax on "Cadillac" health care plans. In their holy bid to take care of their own, this new triumvirate agreed to exempt from the excise tax union-bargained health care plans and state and local government employees until 2018.This attitude is why Coakley lost. It's not a liberal vs conservative thing. We've simply reached the breaking point and every time the powers that be grant special favors to a select group another slice of the electorate peels away. Whether it's bailouts, government pensions or medical insurance plans, they just don't get it. Republicans found this out in 2006 and Democrats will find this out in 2010.
Republicans could really hammer Democrats in November if they made this the issue, but they won't. They're too stupid. Democrats are doomed in November by their own sword. Now if the Republicans were smart they'd come out with a national platform something along these lines:
- Immediate end to all Congressional pensions. They make a lot of cash and if they can't retire on Social Security they can save for it like the rest of us.
- Any loophole or provision created in nationalized medical insurance plans applies to all US citizens. Government officials get the same insurance plans we do.
- No more bailouts to state governments. Some states made pension deals with their employees that they could never afford, and it's not right for residents in other states to be forced to make them whole.
- Call for the Feds to immediately launch criminal investigations into the financial collapse, top-to-bottom, done by the best prosecutors we have. Leave no stone unturned, no matter if they have a (D) or an (R) after their name. All of us want heads to roll.
4 comments:
Any candidate who promises the brutal incarceration of mortgage criminals -- Casey Konstantin Serin at the top of that list --gets my vote.
State pensions are going to get dumped on the PBGC.
Sooner for some states (Kalifornia)
Lou enough with the California bashing. I concede that things are seriously screwed up out here, however the red states are not subsidizing california. California receives .78 cents in federal expenditures for every dollar we send to washington. Texas receives .97 cents back on every dollar they send.
Was that sarcasm, anon? If not, shove it.
First, individuals pay federal income tax. States do not. We all pay the same tax rate. The vast majority of Californians are not high earners. A few high earners skew the average. In fact, the CA poverty rate is above average. This is why CA still elects federal officials who favor progressive tax rates.
The state of CA has been robbing Californians for years. How would it help to steal from flyover country, too?
Second, a large portion of funds directed to "recipient states" are in the form of Social Security payments. This is not federal largesse. It is their damn money! They earned it. They have a right to it.
These folks grew up paying taxes in NY & CA. But inflation has pushed them out of the big cities & into the Ozarks/western plain states. Fewer & fewer people can afford to live in AZ or FL on a pension.
Third, the red state/blue state distinction is rubbish. VA & NM are 2 of the biggest recipients. In 2004, they were barely considered "red". Both flipped to "blue" in 2008.
MN, NY, IL & CO are a donor states like California. You're making a BIG mistake if you think these "blue" states want to help prop up CA.
Fourth, we all benefit from the Air Force Base in North Dakota.
BTW I love how under Clinton, BRAC was "the peace dividend". Today, CA thinks the military is a welfare program.
The green nuts LOVED to see those bases close. Peace-nik city officials have been antagonizing military recruiters for years. There was tremendous pressure from within the state to close down bases.
Fifth, CA has been a net recipient for most of its history. The state is no longer part of the wild frontier. There's no need to keep sinking federal money in CA. It was fun while it lasted, but get over it.
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