“Top Line” — Health Care Reform Without Adding to Deficit: Obama’s Impossible Dream?

does joe wilson have to educate the president again on another falsehood? this dog dont hunt and when your in a hole quit digging. the majority of americans believe this will add to the deficit and so do the experts. please spare us from this nonsense and lets create some jobs. reform insurance please but table the public option stuff.you clowns in washington are wasting valuable time while unemployment soars.

Impossible dream? Not even close. Taxes are at historic lows – around the levels last seen in the roaring 20′s years of the robber barons. Return taxes to the level under Clinton (prudently – phase the back in), fund the government at levels at least close to every other first world nation on Earth, and it can provide first world nation services. That is, continue to provide first world nation services WITHOUT charging it to Reagan’s credit card (the national debt).

Let’s remember our history. When Bush chose to invade Iraq, there was little discussion about funding. Anyone who even considered such things was considered disloyal. When Bush ran the economy into the ground, we, the taxpayers, were told we must pay for the bailout. Again, no discussion about funding. Consequently, when we talk about healthcare, I feel free to ignore any argument about funding. The money will come from the same place that the money for Iraq came from, and with considerably more benefits going to this nation.

jhw539.. i agree their at historic lows and so are profits.so if its not adding to the deficits then taxes are going up. thats fine but lets have that debate now and see where this bill goes. be honest with the people and specifically tell themm how his will be paid for and see what the people think. sounds fair enough.

This administratino has SERIOUS issues with math.
They create Phantom statisitics, the so-called “saved-job” and then run around the country claiming they have “saved” some absoultely unprovable number of jobs.
They tell the country pass our plan and unemployment wont go above 8%. I guess they figure the American People cannot tell that 9.7% actually is GREATER THAN 8%!
For many months they have been telling us there were 45, 47, or 50 millino uninsured Americans. The President finally admitted the truth in his speech by publicly stating for the FIRST TIME that the number is 30 Million!
Now he tells us that he can find 500 Billion in waste over 10 yrs in Medicare and somehow find the rest he needs in taxing the top 1% or if he needs to, make budget cuts so that ANY healthcare Outline will be deficit-neutral.
One, when was the last time ANYONE’s 10 yr predictions either come in under or on the target? Yes, libbies I mean from BOTH parties!
Most people who have looked at this scheme acknowledge that yrs 1-10 are not even the biggest problem, its years 10-20 !!!!
amy, what you want to call partisan politics, scare tactics & lies, the rest of us call EXPERIENCE! We KNOW this scheme is not possible and we are calling him on it!

jhw539 – A noble concept but EVERY administration since Herbert Hoover has added to the debt of the federal government by spending more than they received in revenue. The practice of borrowing to balance the budget has got to stop, it is poor financial policy and eventually unsustainable. The politicians like to claim that they had a budget surplus at the end oy the fiscal year even if the surplus is less than what they borrowed in the first place. Raising taxes won’t help that much, the politicians need to stop their wasteful spending.
An example of governemnt spending can be seen with the Department of Energy which was established in 1977 under President Carter with the goal of reducing the countries dependance on foriegn oil. After over thirty years we are still dependant upon foriegn oil and look at all of the money spent on this well working department. I can’t imagine the government being able to do a better job on healthcare with their brilliant record with the Department of Energy. Other examples of governments ability to run large programs are Medicare where the unfunded benifits (benifits promissed to contributors) will cause the system to be broke in a few short years, Social Security is in slightly better shape than Medicare but not much.

The Iraqi war added trillions to the deficit and it did nothing to help Americans but Republicans are willing to accept that. Being assured of low cost healthcare coverage for all Americans is something that should be embraced. It doesn’t make sense that we can spend trillions to destroy a country (Iraq) and kill thousands and thousands of innocent people and then turn around and complain about spending a trillion to possibly save American lives.

“A noble concept but EVERY administration since Herbert Hoover has added to the debt of the federal government by spending more than they received in revenue.”
Sandcrab1612 | Sep 14, 2009 3:18:40 PM
Don’t be ignorant. The MASSIVE acceleration of deficit spending is quite clear. Look at the graph of the national debt. There is a clear break upwards starting from Reagan to today.

jhw539 – I’m not looking at who raised it or at what rate just the fact that since Herbert Hoover it has being constantly going up which is wrong. ALL adminstrations are responsible for this irresponsible habit which needs to be stopped NOW.

When Federal Politicians decided alcohol had to go, first an Amendment to the Constitution had to be passed to permit Prohibition.
By what authority does the Federal Government presume to take on “Universal Health Care” without first passing an Amendment? Providing or regulating health care is not one of the 11 enumerated powers of the Federal Government listed under general welfare!
And what authority does the Federal Government have to require citizens to purchase a health care policy? If we the people allow this, what will be the definition of disposable income? What segment of the economy will demand government make us buy their product next?
Unemployment is 10% or higher and there is no free lunch. I challenge Washington to bring back and keep good jobs in the USA and there will be no uninsured problem! If they fail I am for Cap and Trade: hand the politicians there caps and trade them in for new ones!

catman – To achieve a pro-jobs atmosphere htey need to reduce the corprate tax rates so that companies won’t have the incentive to move overseas where taxes are lower. Most politicians don’t look at it this way they just tax whoever regardless of the results. If corporate taxes were reduced or eliminated then companies would have funds available to expand resulting in more jobs for our citizens.

Caution, has our congress ever done anything without increasing spending?
Has it suddenly received an IQ transplant?
Obama has failed on other promises on spending, remember no earmarks? Then the stimulus didn’t need earmarks it included all that had been septic from being held in the dark!

The public does not understand that the costs of Obama’s health care are to be spread out over a 10 year period. Here are some cost cutting measures that would in fact save the tax payers money.
First of all because everyonewill access to primary care, a lot of illnesses can be caught before they become serious. Prevention is always the best medicine. And our health care system right now is based on treatment NOT prevention. That’s one big reason for its massive expense.
We could cut a lot of health care costs simply by changing our diet. We could reduce our consumption of saturated fats and sugars. We could also slash our consumption of red meat and processed meat, both widely known carcinogen. We can try this voluntarily – or we could perhaps have the government step in. Eliminating government subsidies for beef and pork producers would not only cut our health care costs but also help balance the budget.
We also need to de-carbonize our economy. The first economy to free itself from fossil fuels will be the dominant economy of the 21st century, and already Europe, China and even the Arab shiekdoms of the Persian Gulf are ahead of us.
In addition, freeing ourselves from fossil fuels will cut our medical bills. Many urban areas are plagued by asthma, caused by air pollution. Coal mining often involves mountain top removal which dumps toxic chemicals into watersheds and poisons the drinking water of millions of people. The same could be said about our agri-business which rely on pesticides which also seep into aquifers and water supplies.
According to a report I got from USW@Work, between 30,000 to 50,000 American workers are injured or disabled each year through work place accidents. Empowering OSHA to do its job would help cut down this statistic. We also need to staff the NLRB because ding-wing senators are obstructing Obama’s nominations. We also need to pass the Employee Free Choice Act. All of these measures would ensure greater work place safety and cut down on our nation’s medical bills.
Finally, we need to force the rich to pay higher taxes. We have given the rich tax breaks since the Reagan era, and all they have given us the war in Iraq and the bank crisis. Instead of produceing more jobs, they have off-shored jobs overseas, or they have imported “guest workers” or undocumented immigrants to take jobs that belong to Americans. It’s time they paid for their irresponsible behavior through larger taxes.
The big problem with Congress and much of the public is their inability to see how various phenomena are inter-related. Yes, Obama’s health care proposals are cost-effective. But we need to think beyond the box. The proposals I’ve outlined represent this sort of thinking.

Obama will be long gone when everyone will be screaming that the system now on the table has sent the country broke. Then what? A new system to fix this new one, if it ever gets through.

loook… i dont care what BO said in his speech, this community agitator will say ANYTHING to get this swill passed. but to the inteeligent observer, there’s no WAY this plan will not ruin the country financially AND provide sub standard care. I mean, what has the gov’t undertaken thats been a success story (social security, fannie maethe post office amtrak???). where has socialized medicine succeeded world wide? NOWHERE. so why do we hard working non-union members want this garbage..fact is we DONT. BO for all his flahsy empyt rhetoric is playing to his special interestes.. namely UNIONS. look at this trade war he just got us into with china over tires.. this was at the request of the steel union. OMG our country ins in for a long 3 1/2 yrs with this clown at the helm

The costs will be covered (as President Obama and Senator Baucus have planned) by the “particpants” in the health care exchange..The insurance and pharmaceutical companies will keep digging deeper since they will have more to give however many hospitals can’t dig deeper..there articles today regarding the lack of primary care docs and facilities however that will change because many of todays hospitals will become something else..Besides covering the uninsured ,it was critical that we change they way we deliver health care..either by choice or by necessity..

As I read the blog messages I see the same US vs Them that exist in congress and throughout our political system. Now it has even spread to many of the people. There is nothing wrong with our system of government…it’s the people running it. It matters not whether your talking about the democrat or republican parties there is corruption everywhere. WE the people need to have enough sense to figure that out and remove those people from office in both parties that are not honest and forthright with the people. They are not empowered to impose their will on the people. They are empowered by the people to represent the people, meaning to support and carry out the will of the people. Lets take the immigration issue , neither party wants to enforce our immigration law and do what is in the best interest of the American people who have built this country. Instead they allow illegal aliens ( yes I said illegal Aliens not undocumented immigrants) to enter this country, stay and take advantage of what we have built and do so at our expense. This is being allowed for two reasons…cheap labor to further pad the pockets of big business and to secure the hispanic vote to the benefit of politicans. To many of these illegal aliens we are providing welfare, free school lunches, free medical care and other benefits. The cost of this health care to illegal aliens is a large part of the cost increase we have seen in medical care and health insurance over the past decade. Hospitals provide the health care free to the illegal aliens, then raise their prices for services to recover the loss. The higher cost is then imposed on the patients they serve who have insurance. Insurance companies then increase the cost of premiums to cover their additional expense. We the consumer have no one to pass the cost on to.
The big spending of this congress and presidential administration will cost us all. Imposing tax on the rich is a political shell game. The rich are the people of own the businesses in this country if fees and tax increases are place on them, they will pass this cost on to you and I as increased cost for goods and services. For this reason it makes no sense for the middle or low income people to support any of this. It is pose to us as a free benefit but in the end it is not, you will pay more for electricity, gas, bread etc, but we will be the ones to pay for it not the rich or big business. Anyone who cannot figure this out probably bought a new car under cash for clunkers. Health care reform and Cap and Trade as being proposed by congress and this administration will increase the cost of living of the middle and low income buy several thousand dollars a year….You must remember folks, nothing is free. The government has no money except what it takes from it’s people.