AP POLL: How to pay for health overhaul? Tax rich

[babylonsister]

AP POLL: How to pay for health overhaul? Tax rich

By ERICA WERNER, Associated Press Writer


WASHINGTON – Americans don't want to shoulder the cost of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul themselves. They think the rich should pay for it.

That's the finding from a new Associated Press poll, and it could be a boost for House Democrats, who have proposed taxing upper-income people to fund their sweeping remake of the U.S. medical system. Their plan, which the House approved this month, would extend coverage to millions of uninsured Americans.

The poll, conducted by Stanford University with the nonpartisan Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, found survey participants sour on other ways of paying for the health overhaul that is being considered in Congress.

The options they don't like include taxing insurers on the high-value coverage packages derided by Obama and Democrats as "Cadillac plans." That tax approach, being weighed in the Senate, is one of the few proposals in any congressional legislation that analysts say would help reduce the nation's health expenditures. It has come under fire from organized labor and has little support in the House.

Lawmakers also are looking at levying new taxes on insurance companies, drug companies and medical device makers. But the only approach that got majority support in the AP poll was a tax on upper-income Americans.

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091117/ap_on_bi_ge/us_ap_poll_health_taxes;_ylt=AmO.0hpyQGpA341DWXJZbvis0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTM5b3UxZzBhBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMDkxMTE3L3VzX2FwX3BvbGxfaGVhbHRoX3RheGVzBGNwb3MDNwRwb3MDNARwdANob21lX2Nva2UEc2VjA3luX2hlYWRsaW5lX2xpc3QEc2xrA2FwcG9sbGhvd3RvcA--

[Warpy]

1. Why do I doubt that "cut the Pentagon budget"

was one of the options?

The truth is that we'd have enough money to do all sorts of things in this country if that five sided black hole weren't swallowing it all.

We need to cut that budget 10% per year until we're in line with what other countries spend as a percentage of GDP. We can no longer afford the rich man's empire, especially since the rich man has reduced his burden to nearly nothing.

We currently have something like 170 bases offshore. We also squander billions on over engineered junk that is obsolete as soon as the paper on the drawing board is changed. The Pentagon has been used as a welfare office for the Koch brothers and other arms contractors for far too long.

We the people can't afford it any longer. It's killing us.

[Shagbark Hickory]

2. Here's an idea. How about we stop providing funding for universal healthcare in Iraq/Afganistan n/t