Guiliani The Face Of America

As I read a report on Rudy's health care "Plan" I was almost slack jawed. I was already irate that Guiliani could even be a Republican front runner, but his "plan" was one of the stupidest things I had read in a very long time and I read a lot.
In a more perfect world that speech would have been the death of Rudy's presidential bid. In a more perfect world, after his actions after Diallo and Dorismond, Guiliani would be untouchable as a candidate for anything. But this is the money corrupt US of A where consumer scares over goods made in China for no other reason than it is cheaper and therefore more profitable for already profitable companies to manufacture; citizens have been scared against anything that has the word "socialist" or "socialized" possibly attached to it. In this bizarre world that many a US citizen reside, Tax breaks for corporations is not a government handout or welfare. It's "creating a good business environment." However; creating a safety net for citizens is a sign of laziness and government dependency. This is the world where Rudy and a good number of not too affluent Americans live where as Michael Moore has demonstrated, even the intrusion of reality, such as a savings depleting medical bill, does not alter the mindset of these people. But back to Rudy and his "plan".

Mr. Guiliani suggested that each citizen (I assume) would be given a $15,000 tax break in order to purchase their own insurance. It's a funny thing what can come out of the mouths of the self-employed. Se we the self-employed earn our money and pay taxes on a quarterly or yearly basis. So we get to hold onto our money and spend it and then get taxed on what is left. The average citizen is an employee who has taxes taken out of their checks at each pay period. So the citizen would see, assuming 26 paychecks $577/ per check. That assumes that they make enough money that they would have a tax liability that is more than the $15,000. That is not the case for most of the uninsured in America.

This site gives a slightly dated overview of the COBRA system that is currently in place that affects unemployed people:

Under COBRA, unemployed workers and their families generally are eligible to maintain health insurance through their former employer for up to 18 months, so long as they pay the full cost of the premiums. As noted, average annual premiums for family coverage in job-based health insurance equal or exceed $7,000, however, and are unaffordable for many unemployed workers, especially those with low- and moderate incomes. As a result, only 20 percent of those eligible for COBRA make use of it during their period of unemployment...

A COBRA subsidy also would be of no help to laid-off workers who lacked job-based health insurance prior to becoming unemployed. Many such individuals were previously employed by firms — usually small employers — that did not offer health insurance coverage. Only 58 percent of firms with three to nine workers offer health insurance to their employees. The low-income unemployed also include substantial numbers of people who were offered coverage through their employer while on the job but could not afford the employee contributions. One of every five workers with incomes below the poverty line who have access to employer-based coverage is uninsured; three-quarters of the uninsured workers cite cost as the principal reason they declined coverage. If these workers cannot afford subsidized premiums when they are receiving paychecks, they surely will not be able to afford the premiums for health insurance when they lose their jobs.

A person making 30,000 dollars (many more people than Guiliani would like to believe) has a tax liability of ~$4,122.50 (based on the 2006 tax rates schedule. It is clear that they cannot even begin to pay full COBRA rates nor would they be even close to the $15,000 tax credit in a given year unless their income climbed to near $60,000.

So it's pretty clear here that Guiliani's "plan" is about as substantive as the wind passing his teeth. I think the Guiliani camp knows that his speech was so much bull-ish, and that was why they had him go into attack mode on those who favor so-called "socialized medicine."

"We need an American solution" said Rudy. "Not a Canadian solution or a European solution."

No of course we don't want a European solution. No. Americans would absolutely balk at the idea of having a medical emergency and being able to go to the hospital and get top notch treatment and not worry about a bill at the end of the stay because *gasp* the taxes they paid all the years they were well paid for that system. No. No one wants THAT. The only Canadian thing they want are Canadian built "US" cars. The only European things they want are Bimmas and Benzes (Check the latest auto sales reports). They want European leather, bags, etc. But not the health care. OK.

The coup-de-grace has to be the completely laughable line that "we cannot expect the government to take care of you." I will suppose then that Guiliani would have been happy with the response of FEMA in New Orleans. But the whole "government can't help you" line is so laughable because anyone paying attention will recall the nice bailout of Chrysler. We know about all the 'tax incentives" offered to businesses to stay in the US. The government seems quite content to help out other countries with all manner of "aid" and yet to ask the government to give a rats behind about it's own citizens and spend whatever is necessary to fix the system that Nixon created by getting parasitic "health care companies" off the consumer titty, is asking too much.

Yes, in a more perfect world, Rudy's speech would have been his last. In that world Diallo and Dorismond would be alive today. But it's not and so Guiliani and others can continue to say dumb stuff while Americans east it up.