Amazon.com Widgets

As featured on p. 218 of "Bloggers on the Bus," under the name "a MyDD blogger."

Wednesday, April 01, 2009

More Tax Trouble

The Obama revenue stimulus by having his cabinet nominees undergo rigorous tax scrutiny and pay back what is owed continues. I think the moral to this story is that 99% of all people get their taxes wrong, in particular at the higher income levels when the deductions are more complex. This would seem to be an argument for simplifying the tax code, which is what conservatives always say they want, but that isn't the lesson they're drawing.

Meanwhile, John McCain is a petulant child for what he put Kathleen Sebelius through yesterday.

"Would you agree," McCain asked, that executives of firms receive more lavish health benefits than their employees?

"Well Senator," replied Sebelius, "I certainly agree that in the marketplace that the self employed or small employers are often priced out. There's no question that employer based health insurance is the backbone --"

"My question," interrupted McCain, "is do you agree or disagree that employer based health insurance is much more generous to upper level management?"

"I'm not familiar with the differentials in the health insurance system," Sebelius relied. "In a state employees system or a manufacturing operation workers have good benefits and they don't differ from the benefits of the executives in those systems."

"Would you support removing the tax exclusion and substituting a removable tax credit of, say, $5,000 for families so they could go out and purchase their own health insurance in a policy of their choice?"

"Well, Senator, I support what the President has articulated an--"

"You know," McCain sharply interrupted, "we are asking for your views."

"I support what the President has proposed," Sebelius icily replied. "That if Americans have health insurance that they like they should be able to keep it. Dismantling the current employer based system to me is not the most effective strategy for reaching full coverage given how many Americans currently rely on it."


Shorter McCain: "Don't you agree I'm right? DON'T YOU!!!! I can haz White House now?"

Labels: , , ,

|