Thread: A dirge for America?

Originally Posted by commiecat

Are you for or against health reform as a principle, and what part of this specific bill are you so upset about?

I am for the most part for health care reform. There are many models of health care around the world that work well for the people they cover. But the bill put forth in the US is far from these other models. I have been doing my best to read this bill and I'm around 1800 pages into it. So far, what I'm seeing here is that it does not have anything to do with reform let alone health care at all. It seems to be more about expanding a broken sick care system. You don't get any choice in the matter. All Americans will be required to pay into a system that is monopolized by pharmaceutical companies even if you don't want it or agree with it. To go into every detail that "upsets" me, would require far more time than I am willing to put into writing here in the forum. Take some time folks and research the topic. Don't rely on your TV's and news papers to tell you what to think. Get out on the house.gov sites and read and read and read.
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Disturbingly, the IRS would be in charge of verifying that every American taxpayer has obtained acceptable health coverage for every month of the year. If the IRS determines that a taxpayer lacks acceptable insurance for even a single month, then the IRS would impose a new tax on that taxpayer, even auditing the taxpayer and could assess interest and penalties on top of the tax. This is an unprecedented new role for the IRS – one that will inject the IRS even
further into the lives of American families.
This report examines the details of the IRS’s new powers and how this federal bureaucracy will scrutinize and exercise its enhanced authority over Americans. Key findings include:
>IRS agents verify if you have “acceptable” health care coverage;
>IRS has the authority to fine you up to $2,250 or 2 percent of your income (whichever is
greater) for failure to prove that you have purchased “minimum essential coverage”;
>IRS can confiscate your tax refund;
>IRS audits are likely to increase;
>IRS will need up to $10 billion to administer the new health care program this decade;
>IRS may need to hire as many as 16,500 additional auditors, agents and other employees to investigate and collect billions in new taxes from Americans; and
>Nearly half of all these new individual mandate taxes will be paid by Americans earning
less than 300 percent of poverty ($66,150 for a family of four).
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Now that this bill has passed, it will become clear that Congress is no longer the sovereign of this nation. Rather, the corporations dictating the laws will be. I understand the temptation to offer 30 million people health care. What I don’t understand is the nonchalance with which we’re about to fundamentally shift the relationships of governance in doing so.
This health care bill is just another government cash grab! There is no government of the people, for the people, by the people, only the rule of private interests. The Wall Street investment banks, which created with the compliance of the regulatory authorities and the credit rating agencies, ‘toxic’ instruments that were sold world wide, thus destroying the prospects of people in many countries, are devoid of integrity and honor. Their only god is greed. And they control the US government, which is too dependent on campaign contributions to restore regulation. Democrats, Republicans, neocons, neolibs... they all work for the banksters. All the highfalutin rhetoric they continually espouse is nothing more than hot air on
the road to serfdom.