Theoretically, Tax Reform Should Fly (Get Real)

[papau]

To pay for … cuts in investment taxation, the administration is eyeing two large funding sources: eliminating the tax deductibility of employer-provided health insurance and eliminating the deductibility of state and local taxes."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A29878-2004Dec2.html?sub=AR

Theoretically, Tax Reform Should Fly
Get Real, Say Critics of White House Economists
By Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 3, 2004; Page E01


If you want to understand why the Bush administration is pondering eliminating the tax deduction for employer-provided health insurance, consider this year's Economic Report of the President. There, White House economists assert that the deduction unfairly subsidizes employees of some companies while encouraging overly generous health policies that focus on routine medical care.

"If automobile insurance were structured like the typical health policy, it would cover annual maintenance, tire replacement, and possibly even car washes," said the report, concluding that "health insurance markets can be improved . . . focus on large expenditures that are truly the result of unforeseen circumstance" and "to provide a more standardized tax treatment of all health care markets."

The argument points to a certain truth about President Bush's free-market economic policies that Bush supporters say is unappreciated: In crafting a broad agenda for his second term, Bush is trying to adhere strictly to economic theory, perhaps even more so than during the Reagan administration's early battles over deregulation and taxes.

In a speech yesterday at the American Enterprise Institute, N. Gregory Mankiw, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, spoke repeatedly of "standard economic theory," "textbook economic theory" and "scholarly literature in economics" to bolster his arguments.

Indeed, theories on economic efficiency, savings incentives and government debt finance -- arcane in the nation's capital if not in the academy -- will likely dominate debate over the president's push to revamp Social Security and the tax code in the coming years. It will pit Bush's philosophy that taxation and government spending distort economic decision-making and impede growth against arguments that government should steer some decisions for the broader good. <snip>

[trotsky]

1. "overly generous health policies that focus on routine medical care"

Ummm so that would be the PREVENTIVE services that head off the massive spending necessary when someone really does get sick?

I swear these people are so short-sighted I'm surprised they can drive a car.

[papau]

2. tHERE IS NOTHING EXCEPT CUT TAXES ON THE RICH - and media

knows - and keeps it quiet -

why?

[sinkingfeeling]

3. And look at where Mankiw gave his speech...why does the

MSM always print the crap that involves AEI? Where are the speeches of those who oppose this destruction of the USA?