What the HELL is Bush doing???

[wicket]

He's planning on getting rid of the tax deduction for employers to provide health insurance to their employeess, wtf???

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58554-2004Nov17.html

"The changes are meant to be revenue-neutral. To pay for them, the administration is considering eliminating the deduction of state and local taxes on federal income tax returns and scrapping the business tax deduction for employer-provided health insurance, the advisers said.

The plan to get rid of the deduction for state and local taxes is also especially moronic. We need to make a stink about this!!! Time to start writing letters and making calls fellow DUers! We can't let him get away with this, this plan is outrageous, 45 million Americans without health insurance is nothing compared to what it will be if this plan goes through. It's really scary to think about... :scared:

[The Backlash Cometh]

1. The man is a nutcase.

I'm going to love to see how history will remember him.

[jdj]

2. I'm starting to think he just flat hates poor people.

unbelievable

[datasuspect]

5. you're just now starting to think that?

really though, i agree with you - they have a hard on for the poor, the working class, the middle class.

we'll be living in a third world country by the end of this decade.

[JNelson6563]

21. Poor people are just lazy

dontcha know? Just ask any Freeper.

Julie

[shrike]

25. He expects his plan for HSAs to "catch on."

The plan is to shift health insurance costs from employers to employees. HSA (Health Savings Accounts) legislation has already been passed. What he expects is that employers will offer catastrophic insurance at best and you and I will happily pay for our own health care by saving for it. I've told people this plan and either they flat out don't believe me or greet the news with stunned silence.

[HeeBGBz]

29. The feelings mutual. n/t

[shesemsmom]

3. Well.......

he fixing to screw us again. I use that that tax break given by employer to take out money through the year to pay for meds and medical care. You are right. Lets go get em!!!!!

[Philostopher]

4. I've seen the theory other places, on this,

that they're floating really outrageous trial balloons in effort to make some lesser piece of crap look better. I don't know if people who are suggesting this are right or if they're naive -- I'm not sure this crew thinks there's anything they can't do to shake our pockets out, destroy the middle class and the working class, and funnel yet more money into the richest people's pockets.

This is gonna piss off their constituents in red Ohio -- we pay a relatively high income tax rate, here, and lots of people buy houses above their means hoping to get that personal interest deduction the first few years; it's often the difference between affording a house and not affording it. While it's not wise to buy a house you can't afford, lots of people do it. I look for the bottom to drop out of the housing market and foreclosures to spike, if they take away the mortgage and state tax deductions, at least in states that have an income tax.

But I look for lots of people to get battered in the next four years, and I put nothing past this passel of thieves. I think we're going back to the feudal era -- serfs and landowners, and the serfs guided by superstition, believing in the divine right of kings. Hello Dark Ages! Wonder if I'll float or sink, and which will have me burned at the stake?

[sui generis]

12. careful I just saw some peasants milling about outside

with pitchforks and torches.

[rkc3]

19. It is especially disturbing that they would take away deductions for

state and local taxes already paid. I make a reasonable living but there's no way in hell I could afford an annual tax hit that would be a result of this change.

This country would see default rate on mortgages fly right through the ceiling.

[Philostopher]

22. That's what I'm thinking.

I'm just wondering what they're planning to do with all those houses they buy at Sheriff's Sale 10% or 15%. They'll hurt the mortgage bankers with it, as well. And where are the bottom 30% of homeowners supposed to go? With interest rates lower, like they've been in the past few years, a lot of people were able to buy who couldn't buy before -- part of the wisdom of buying for them was that they paid less in mortgage than they did in rent. There's less low- and middle-income (edit) rental/lease housing than ever, and what's there sucks for the most part. I don't know where those folks are supposed to go when their houses are foreclosed. My back yard, I guess. Better start setting up Tent City -- some folks may need it soon.

Can debtors' prison be far behind? They've already made it virtually impossible for people to get any leg up from declaring personal bankruptcy. Guess Halliburton/Carlyle can build some more prisons, and they can employ some more people in the criminal justice system to herd all those baffled former-homeowners around.

[KayLaw]

23. Company housing?

If things were ever as bad as you mentioned, maybe the bug corporations will buy the houses as use them for employee housing. WalMart will the company store, of course. :tinfoilhat:

[noonwitch]

6. He's trying to make it so that companies will give up providing insurance

If he takes away their tax incentives, they will fight the unions about this now. It could be a union-busting kind of move.

[thecrow]

7. This will be the excuse that cheap employers use

to cancel us all from company paid health benefits.
I know that this year instead of raises, we all got a note with our paychecks announcing that our health insurance premiums (paid by the company) had a raise of 13%. Therefore no raises this year...again!
Our paychecks are now LESS than previous years while our bills and taxes have risen. At least we all still have jobs.
But our small company will be hard pressed to keep paying our health insurance when these tax deductions are taken away.

I HATE *Bushit "economics"!!!!!!

[sui generis]

8. so explain to me how this isn't "raising taxes"???????

If your net tax burden next year is greater than your tax burden this year, your taxes have been increased.

[JHB]

9. It won't affect anyone. At least, anyone worth speaking of...

Y'see, * looks at things kind of like this:

Far back in the mists of ancient time, in great and glorious days of the former Galactic Empire, life was wild, rich and largely tax free. Mighty Starships plied their way between exotic suns, seeking adventure and reward among the furthest reaches of Galactic space. In those days spirits were brave, the stakes were high, men were real men, women were real women and small furry from Alpha Centauri were real small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri. And all dared to brave unknown terrors, to do mighty deeds, to boldly split infinites that no man had split before-and thus was the Empire forged. Many men of course became extremely rich, but this was perfectly natural and nothing to be ashamed of because no one was really poor -- at least no one worth speaking of.
-- from "Life, the Universe, and Everything" by Douglas Adams
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A716807

And if you're "no one worth speaking of", you get a "who cares what you think" and policies that will loot your meagre ability to get ahead.

[KurtNYC]

10. This is a tax increase

When are the Republicans going to start objecting? Huge federal government, liberal spending and now a tax increase.

Read my lips: It's a tax increase.

[HuskiesHowls]

11. Oh, my boss is gonna love this...

He's a republican, he says that he likes the way they think.
HOWEVER, he says that his business always does better with a Democratic administration.

Hmmmm...I wonder what he's gonna say now???

[donhakman]

15. Your boss likes

the way they want him to think.

very little.

[wicket]

17. Be sure to mention this to your boss

We need to get people riled up about this!

[sui generis]

13. Write your congressman. Visit your senator.

Whether you voted for him/her or not, you MUST contribute your voice directly. With a flood of letters and visits your representatives can't claim that they are supporting their constituency.

I am dead earnest serious. Put on your activist hats and start writing letters and planning in-person visits. If we don't, then we're just as guilty of helping this kind of absurd legislation through the door.

[Ironpost]

14. You know I remember when the doctors went on strike

I think Los Angeles, not sure which county though. but any way the death rate dropped dramatically, maybe we stand by for a little while, while no one has any health insurance you can't go to the doctor the doctor doesn't make any money, still has the same bills so he will be forced to lower his prices where we can afford them. Then the whole cycle will repeat itself but us and our children will be a lot smarter the second time around and won't allow it to blossom so big.

[donhakman]

16. My Dr.

prescribed me 3 deadly poisons in a row.

Sulpha ingredient ( I wrote in 2 inch tall letters I was allergic)

Vioxx - heart attack

Crestor - liver failure



poor Drs.





Read my lips - not the paper

[berni_mccoy]

18. Take from the Poor, Give to the Rich

Typical republican crap.

At least the dems in congress that vote AGAINST this bill will be voting for lower-taxes for the poor, but you know, if a congressmen runs for president next time, this will be tallied with their voting for higher taxes (conveniently leaving out crucial aspects of the vote).

[Minstrel Boy]

20. No surprise. The agenda has always been to undo the New Deal.

And I think that's a done deal.

[wicket]

24. I was really hoping America would wake to Bush's agenda

But NOOOOOOOOO!

[wicket]

26. kick

:kick:

[Cat Atomic]

27. Isn't this sort of... the opposite of what he talked about?

First Bush said that, rather than providing national health care, we should just cut taxes on employers so they can provide health care to their employees.

Now he wants to raise taxes on employers specifically to stop them from providing health care to their employees?

[wicket]

28. He's definitely breaking a campaign promise with this

what an asshole.

[Lindsay]

30. And his breaking a campaign promise

is a surprise to you?

;)

Remember, this is the same guy who was hell-bent on getting rid of overtime pay. Getting rid of tax deductions for health benefits is a good excuse for employers to wash their hands of their involvement. And the race to the bottom picks up speed.

[wicket]

32. No surprise at all

Unfortunately.

[sangh0]

31. Great News!!!

That'll piss off millions and millions of voters, and it will never pass.

Actually, this sounds like a planned distraction