England is afire and has been for a number of days now. The excuse of a police shooting was turned into riots by people who make no apologies for the claim that they intend to have what the rich have, the rich being most anyone who works and tries to make the economy sustainable. It is the result of class-consciousness carried to the extreme.
The socialist government is supposed to guarantee that everyone has the same “things” as everyone else. It’s supposed to do this by taxing the workers to a degree that will take care of everybody cradle-to-grave. Eventually, as is happening now in Greece, Spain, England, Italy and now France, the government will bankrupt itself, can no longer feed the classes, and the classes take to the streets. For these countries, it’s virtually too late to do anything constructive, a lesson that is almost too late for the learning for the U.S.
The top tax-rate in England is 50% for those making over 150,000 pounds ($241,950). This doesn’t touch all the other taxes they pay, so the better off are being taxed inordinately at a rate that still can’t support the system. The next step down, tax-wise, is at 40%, (those making over $56,900), both rates far above those paid in this country, yet the economy can’t be sustained. Germany’s tax rates are similar (top rate at 45% but with corporate rate at 33.3%).
The corporate tax-rate in this country stands at 35%, among the four highest in the world, in which the average rate among developed nations is 25%. By contrast, the corporate tax-rate in Canada is 16.5%, its way of proclaiming to the world that it’s ready to do business, create jobs and hopefully enlarge its individual tax base to the point that it can support its essentially socialistic system. The top individual rate is 29% but applies to all income above $128,800, as compared to Obama’s goal of 39.6% on all above $250,000 (for starters). The corporate tax-rate in China is 25%. Is it any wonder that shoes and nearly everything else bought in this country are made in China?
The U.S. economy can’t be sustained under current law but when Obamacare is added it will further crumble, never mind any of the glorious statistics that have been presented, although no one seems to know what’s actually in the new law. These countries have found it out the hard way, though Germany may last a while longer. In 1966, Medicare cost to the government was $3 billion, with the House Ways/Means committee projecting its cost for 1990 to be $12 billion.
The actual governmental outlay in 1990 was $107 billion, a mistake in prediction of 3,467%. That just about says it all with respect to the government’s understanding of economics/demographics. The outlay in 2010 was an astronomical $458 billion, an increase of 328% in just 20 years, while population of those 65 and over grew by only 1.3% from 1990 to2010. That is an amazing almost unbelievable discrepancy vis-à-vis reality. No legislator in Congress read the whole healthcare bill and it’s a lead-pipe cinch the president didn’t, either, but on the basis of history, when it kicks in (2014, well after Obama’s reelection effort) it will be a budget-buster.
Private insurance agencies handle all Medicare claims, not the government. The government got out of this complicated business a long time ago, realizing it couldn’t administer its own programs. If and when Obamacare gets real, the bureaucratic quagmire will only worsen, with layers of overlapping bureaucracy similar to that which already exists in all areas of government. Congresses have tweaked the original Medicare bill through the years, as in 2003 when prescription drugs became a part of it, but by far the main reason for its out-of-control costs is corruption.
Anything that belongs to the government actually belongs to no one, thus open season on the government till, in this case by the pharmaceuticals, doctors, lawyers and hardware providers and individuals who can figure a way to game the system. As a for instance, U.S. Attorney Stephen Pence estimated that while Dr. Steve Henry was lieutenant governor of Kentucky 1996-2001, he committed fraud amounting to between $400,000 and $600,000 account not being present in surgical procedures for which he billed Medicare/Medicaid. Henry settled for $162,000.
Part of the tragedy in the socialist health systems is the rationing of care and the long lines, for which Obama wants taxes raised (his 39.6% for the better-off just the start), but it’s been proven that constant raising of taxes, besides not saving the economy, degrades all the goods and services. These countries go after the middle class just like they go after the biggies, and this is also Obama’s agenda, notwithstanding any of the high-flown rhetoric about saving the middle class. The middle class to Obama is the unions.
At any rate, increasing taxes is not the answer. A complete revamping of government enterprise is.
And so it goes.
Jim Clark
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