2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumHow a Financial Tax Will Pay for National Health Care
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/04/04/how-a-financial-tax-will-pay-for-national-health-care/
April 4, 2016
How a Financial Tax Will Pay for National Health Care
by Jack Rasmus
Leading the assault have been supporters of Hillary Clinton, especially Paul Krugman, and other stars of the economics profession like Christine Romer, Laura Tyson, Alan Kreuger, and Austan Goolsbeall of whom have served in past Democrat administrations and are no doubt looking to return again in some capacity in a Hillary Clinton administration. Sometimes referred to as the gang of four, this past month all have been aggressively attacking Sanders economic programs and reforms. However, the target of their attacks, which began in February and continue, is Sanders proposals for financing a single payer-universal health care program by means of a financial transactions tax.
The irony of the Krugman-Gang of Four attack is that Sanders proposals represent what were once Democratic Party positions and programspositions that have been abandoned by the Democratic Party and its mouthpiece economists since the 1980s as that party has morphed into a wing of the neoliberal agenda.
...
Where does that current $1.2 trillion go? Not for health services for its citizens. It goes to health insurance companies and other middlemen, who dont deliver one iota of health care services. They are the paper pushers, who skim off $1.2 trillion a year in profits that average returns of 20% a year and more. They are economic parasites, or what economists refer to as rentier capitalists who dont produce anything but suck profits and wages from those who do actually produce something. They then used the $1.2 trillion a year to buy up each other, expand globally, and deliver record dividend and stock buybacks for their shareholders.
Gregorian
(23,867 posts)Monty Python could do a great piece on combatant economists.
The moon is hanging in the purple sky
The baby's sleeping while its mother sighs
Talking 'bout the rich folks
Rich folks have the same jokes
And they park in basic places.
The priest is preaching from a shallow grave
He counts his money, then he paints you saved
Talking to the young folks
Young folks share the same jokes
But they meet in older places.
So don't tell me about your success
Nor your recipes for my happiness
Smoke in bed
I never could digest
Those illusions you claim to have going.
The sun is shining, as it's always done
Coffin dust is the fate of everyone
Talking 'bout the rich folks
The poor create the rich hoax
And only late breast-fed fools believe it.
So don't tell me about your success
Nor your recipes for my happiness
Smoke in bed
I never could digest
Those illusions you claim to have going.