Subj : Re: Single payer health care To : All From : anthk Date : Sat Apr 05 2025 10:04:46 On 2025-01-28, Gamgee wrote: > > -=> Aaron Goldblatt wrote to Utopian Galt <=- > > UG> I know the progressives want single payer, but unless we pay down our > UG> budget deficit a bit, I do not feel comfortable with the start up > UG> costs. > > AG> Reforming our tax system such that all incomes pay something > AG> approximating a fair share, and reforming defense spending, would go a > AG> long way toward paying for the creation of a national health system and > AG> a stable Social Security system. > > AG> Non-exhaustive example: Defense spending is known to be rife with > AG> waste, but efforts to control it and figure out what money is actually > AG> being spent on are stymied at every turn (and this week's firing of the > AG> Inspector General at DOD will not help). Defense spending is the number > AG> general line item in the budget after Social Security (see below), yet > AG> nobody wants to make any serious effort to touch it. Social Security > AG> used to be the third rail of politics; now it seems to be guns. > > AG> Non-exhaustive example: Social security could be considerably shored up > AG> by lifting the maximum income limit on the tax (currently approximately > AG> $176,000). > > AG> Non-exhaustive example: Taxing capital gains at a higher rate than we > AG> do presently, especially for gains values over $1 million. Currently, > AG> the individual rate sits at 20%, down from a maximum of 35% in 1979, > AG> and the corporate rate sits at 21%, down from a maximum of 35% > AG> beginning in 1993. Yet it's well known that large corporations pay > AG> little to nothing, sometimes even getting millions to hundreds of > AG> millions in refunds. In a fair system, that would not happen. > > AG> Instead, politicians focus on penny-anty nonsense like cutting NASA and > AG> the USPS (both respectively less than 0.06% of the total spend in > AG> 2024). The USPS in particular would be self-supporting if not for that > AG> silly retirement pre-funding accounting gimmick that no other business > AG> in the world is required to use. (And there is a significant argument > AG> to be made that not everything must be for-profit.) > > AG> On the other hand, Republicans seem to have a significant aversion to > AG> doing anything at all that will help average people and make their > AG> lives easier. Non-exhaustive examples: Proposals to repeal the ACA > AG> without any kind of plan to replace it, despite now having had 14 years > AG> to come up with something; litigation and plans in legislation to > AG> destroy the SAVE plan for student loan borrowers; continual attempts to > AG> tighten eligibility for Medicaid, SSDI, SNAP and school lunches. > > Sounds like you should move your socialist commie-wannabe ass to > Venezuela. I hear it's nice there this time of year. > > > > ... Your proctologist called - he found your head. > --- MultiMail/Linux v0.52 > þ Synchronet þ Palantir BBS * palantirbbs.ddns.net * Pensacola, FL Spain is not Venezuela and it works really well. Nobody will neither steal your iPhone nor deny your rights for a private insurance. You know, between Stalin and Vance there's a huge spectrum and sane people. In my case, state healthcare was amazing. Our state AT&T teleco monopoly (former Telefonica) sucked a lot compared to private companies. And for telecomms I supported liberlisations from the start. On healthcare... the private companies can't even try to compete, for mid-level surgeries they send you to the public service. Some things are better under a private companies. Healthcare, food control... that's a recipe for disasters. Just have a look on what's happening with measles. It sucks to be the only rational out there. --- þ Synchronet þ Vertrauen þ Home of Synchronet þ [vert/cvs/bbs].synchro.net .