Obama, Taxes, and Healthcare

President Obama and our congressional representatives in Washington are embarking on an ambitious spending spree, the likes of which the United States has not ever seen before. The amounts being spent vary, but our national debt and deficit are soaring to all time highs in just a five month period. What was the change that occurred that prompted the five month spending blitz? President Obama’s swearing in and Democrats gaining larger majorities in Congress are the correct answers. Now to be fair, Republicans are not absolved by any means from criticism. For eight years under President Bush, most of them forgot the principle of fiscal discipline and spent like drunken sailors. Lately, they seem to have gotten their principles in line and have been opposing the spending spree more vocally. I am not going to focus on them, because they have found their voice again and the Democrats have more than doubled the national debt and deficit in a matter of five months, hence the sound of alarms going off.

To make matters worse, the most expensive piece of the liberal agenda is currently being developed in both houses of Congress. That legislation would be the healthcare reform we have been told about for years. Well, it is being developed with explicit instructions coming from the top not to consult with Republicans on it. A moderate Democratic congressman fromTennessee, Jim Cooper, happened to release that nice little fact to the press (so much for bipartisanship, huh?). Now that the liberal wing of the Democratic Party is calling the shots, we have a lot to be worried over. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released estimates on how much the proposed plans will cost. The two plans being considered will cost either $1 trillion (Ted Kennedy’s plan) or $1.6 trillion (Max Baucus’ plan). Now, the purpose of the healthcare plan is to cover the close to 50 million people that do not have health insurance. If Congress passed the plan drawn up by the Democrats, either one that is, it would cover only 16 million people out of 50 million. If we are to spend $1 trillion (most likely a lot more than that, cause Congress always manages to lowball the estimates), should we not get it right so EVERYONE would be covered? To me that makes sense, if we are to invest that amount of money.

However, we cannot and should not develop a healthcare reform plan. I am in favor of one if we can pay for it, but we cannot. The Democratic majority in Congress sees it fit to spend money like drunken sailors buying banks, auto companies, and spend on pork barrel bills; leaving us in the largest fiscal hole we have ever been in. That leaves two options for the President and Congress to consider. The first one is to cut spending. Judging by how much Congress has been passing in regards to spending bills, like a $787 billion stimulus bill that has not worked at all; I highly doubt they will embrace that. Option number 2 is to raise taxes, which is political suicide. There have been talks of raising the income tax, cigarette tax, the liquor tax, or any little thing the liberals can think of. Well, I say no. Americans pay enough in income taxes as it is to pay for the current welfare state. Congress wants us to pay more because they spent it all foolishly and want to provide healthcare to other people? I think not. As much as I am not a fan of smoking, it is an individuals right to do as they see fit and I think we have taxed the poor smokers as much as possible. Finally, raising taxes on alcohol? No, no, no. Everyone enjoys a drink once in awhile and seeing how we are drowning in bad economic news, it seems to me that some people might want to drown their sorrows and not have to pay more to Nancy Pelosi. Democrats should also take note. You may have good approval ratings, but the one area where you are slipping drastically is with spending and taxes. Keep it up and you may not like what you see.

With all of this being said, the only logical choice is for Congress to do a few things. One, stop spending so much money! It is not your money, it is ours, and we don’t want it being spent on half the things you spend it on. Two, don’t you dare raise taxes because you never learned the concept of balancing a checkbook. It might be smart to institute a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution because you guys just suck at it. Three, stop proposing costly government run programs. We may need it, but we can’t afford it. It is wishful, liberal thinking. Save it for a rainy day. Five, start paying down the debt and deficit because something has got to give soon. It is a sad day in this country when we cannot afford a healthcare plan because of financial mismanagement. That is why I am forced to conclude that we can not and should not pass healthcare reform until we can properly pay for it. There is no telling when that could be.