Orszag: Energy Costs May Rise to Offset Health Care Reforms

The energy cost would rise without the health care proposal. Why, it has always risen for no reason, even if it’s a storm to bilk the american consumers. I will rise when we change our ways, for that one last “get rich” stance. At least the American people will be able to see a doctor without going bankrupted!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Before we got Nothing for paying higher cost for energy.

What I want to know is the break down of this tax…how much more per month is it going to cost each home. So many people struggle each month to pay their utilities, I can’t imagine what charging more is going to do to them.

The Federal government is the reason that healthcare is a mess in the first place. It all started with the creation of Medicare. You can trace the deterioration of the system directly from that. It all started with how the government paid providers for Medicare patients. It was a mess that paid providers for certain expenses & capital items – but yet, still didn’t cover the costs of Medicare patients. That in turn created cost shifting to commercial insurance plans. HHS created the prospective payment system (PPS) – (DRG’s, base rates, weights, outliers and days stay that they’d pay for). The commercial insurers followed suit & jumped on the HMO bandwagon (even though HMO’s had been in existence in California for years). And it has just gotten worse every year since. The sad thing is that the people who are yearning for universal healthcare are probably the people who will be denied care because their cost/benefit ratio will be too high – the chance of a good outcome will be too low for the cost of the treatment. They will be in no better shape than they are now.

The so called cost reduction to healhcare won’t happen because the cuts to Medicare and Medicaid will lead to hospitals doing worse and possibly going out of business or the hospitals will raise prices to offset those losses leading to higher healthcare costs for everyone in the long run; electric cars (when they are available)will also add to the problem because how much it will add to your electric bill as well. We are desperately going to need to come up with a way for neighborhoods to buy wind turbines so that when the turbines are paid off they can have free electricity until the turbines need to be replaced.

I liked the Orszag interview. But a caution to Obama & Co. The Library Party of Canada ran on a Carbon Tax last fall, and suffered for it. Even voters in liberal Canada wouldn’t go for it and realized that even with other offsets, they’d pay at the pumps and stores. And this was when the Canadian economy was still thought to be booming.

So buy allowing companies to bribe us for the right to pollute we are ahem “saving” the enviroment. Huh? I realize Obama needs money for his welfare/warfare programs, but um NOBODY has ANY money!!! All of the companies he would tax have already relocated and/or outsourced their labor forces overseas to increase their profit margin. WHERE IS HE GOING TO GET THE MONEY!?! Oh right, YOU!!! How could I forget. Hey, can you spare some more taxes with unoffical unemployment at 13% and RISING, mind you there is no longer any money for unemployment benefits with the states bankrupt. Oh well, see you all in the Soup Kitchen line! (Oh wait, they can’t afford THAT either!)

hmn. EXACTLY >>>>
Obama worst president in history.

MORE TEA PARTIES .>>>>>>
MORE TEA PARTIES.. <<<<<
Obama is out of control.

Orszsag HE DOESNT cap and trade will be a tax on everyone. A totally regressive tax. You think it will cost you more than $13 a week?

I thought Obama said the carbon tax was to finance the Green energy grid to make the US a green energy marvel. Now his administration is say the carbon tax is so we can have health care? Obama and his administration can’t even keep their lies straight, can they? Anyway Americans look at their taxes it’s raised taxes on the American taxpayer and anybody who believes Obama when he says he will cut taxes for the lower tax paying Americans is a fool. The taxes paid by the upper 2% of wealthy Americans CANNOT foot the bill for all Obama’s spending. Average Americans WILL pay raised taxes one way or the other. I am disgusted by Obama’s lies. Two days before he unveils his mind blowingly expensive budget, he hosted a meeting on fiscal responsibility. What a joke. Why are Americans letting this lying slug get away with his lies. This is too sickening to be believed.

Rising energy is what started all this, sucking money out of Americans pockes. Making inflation take of BIG. Price controls should be put back in place for energy. Exxon aka (OPEC) has boasted of having the largest profits EVER of any conpany in the world. What’s wrong with this picture?

“…more efficient health care…” = rationed health care.
The elderly will be shuffled aside because their needed health care dollars will not be efficiently spent.
I wish someone would present both sides of rationed health care as seen in Europe and Canada. People here have this idealized picture of “free” health care, but nothing is free. So many people opt out of their health benefits at work because they would rather spend the $$ on a new car, boat or whatever. I guess this way, people will be forced to pay for health care through higher fuel costs, etc, even if it’s rationed out by bureaucrats.

Hey Hawk, my heart bleeds for you. That’s an anecdote reminiscent of Reagan. Let’s forget the anecdotes and allow some objectivity into the process of deciding our future.
I am reacting to all this “Obama is our worst president” BS that comes out of the irrelevant moronic Right. I have seen how the system has been rigged by those who ransack our wealth by the bilions. I’m not too concerned with small time criminals that would take advantage of a badly needed safety net, while they can. Why don’t you call the DEA on your so threatening neighbor?

We all need to face the sad reality of exactly what has happened and that is an economy based on debt has collapsed. Throw in the greed of many including heads of Freddie and Fannie as well as politicians who raked in cash and favors
and we have what we have. All this hokus pocus that is being done might help in the short term but one day we will pay in the form of higher prices fon everything for sale. Simply moving money from one group to another will simply make all of us poorer for a longer period of time.

Obama’s plans seems to change from the campaign but it still will end up costing all of us. Trying to change our energy systems will take time and will cost, but add to that “cap-n-trade” for “environment” there is extra taxes we will pay for health care. It is just one big tax scheme. No new large energy systems will be here any time soon but empty wallets will be.

What is funny is that you dont see many of the Obama voters on here defending his tax increases, why? I will tell you, because they are all just sitting around waiting for the check.

Energy cost increases are crushing to the middle and lower classes. Democrats are not just stupid, they are colossally stupid.
Obammunism is Communism.

AND THE TOP 5% WHO PAY MOST OF THE TAXES IN THIS COUNTRY ALREADY WILL GET SCREWED AGAIN!!

I am totally confused by the new administration’s energy approach. they seem to be gambling too heavily on wind and solar energy, which are not steady supply of electricity. Also, there is no enough power grid to carry the electricity from wind and solar power to populated area. There is lack of mention of nuclear power , clean coal and offshore drilling in their discussion or plan. Instead they are talking about putting emission cap tax on current main power generation (>70%) by coal or natural gas, which will result in higher electricity rate to the consumers.

Dear Sandy. Please explain the connection between the Reagan/Bush tax cuts and the current economic crisis? Please explain how allowing people to keep their own income somehow causes an economic disaster, as if somehow taxing people creates economic stability in the first place. The answer is that there is no connection between tax custs and the housing bubble whatsoever – they are completely unrelated. The housing bubble was the result of Greenspan keeping interest rates to low for too long and our corrupt government pushing lenders to expand home ownership to people that couldn’t afford homes. Were banks greedy? Yes, because they knew that Freddia and Fannie were implicitly (now explicitly) backed by the Fed and the Fed wanted them to lend as much as possible per their political objectives. Tax cuts have absolutely NOTHING to do with the housing bubble, which is at the root of the current crisis.

With more and more peer-recognized scientist finally coming out to say that mans influence on global warming is so small as to be unmeasurable, why are they still acting as though it is fact! Because AlGore says so. He is a buffoon who is being made to retract at least a few of his idiotic statements. This is not about helping the environment- it is about exerting more control over our daily lives. The more money Obama takes from us through these backdoor taxes, more and more people will be forced into some reliance on him for their living. Please wake up people – he is a serial liar and does not have concern for you, only power to institute his socialist government. In any socialist society, there are few at the very top that live like kings off of the money they steal from everyone else. If you think that that sounds like the rich now, please consider that they made that money; they didn’t steal it to “help others”. Many of those “rich” people give huge amounts to charities. They won’t now since their tax bill is going to be horrendous. They also create jobs, but not in this environment. The economy would have recovered by summer without these huge pork bills, but now, it probably won’t recover for several years. That’s fine with Obama since that increases his power.

We are six weeks into not being any better off 3 years and 11 months from now. Obama sees the economy as the number one priority as well it is. But this spending of our money that we haven’t earned yet will sink his Presidency. I somehow believe that he wants to do good he just has too many strings and hands controlling his puppet presidency. FYI, China a relatively known socialist state does not impose corporate nor capitol gains on its citizens and corporations. We do. Welcome the United Socialist States of America. By the way, these Tea Parties being thrown across the nation are a good thing , although coverage by ABC,CBS,NBC,MSNBC will be nonexistent because it would influence the 6th grade comprehension levels of their viewership. We know from history what comes after a TEA Party.