Scratching the Surface..

 Taken from my personal blog on March 22, 2010.

Its the day after, and I don’t feel any better about what transpired last night. If anything, I feel worse. The hope that we overturn seems less and less, all we can really hope for now is that we can get in there and do some successful surgery and remove the horrible pork added to this bill.

To read some of the stuff attached to the bill is like running through a wishlist of states needs. Its clear the political manuevering Pelosi, Reid, and Obama ran through to get this thing voted into action is enormous. I give them credit for pulling every trick out of the book, but for such a lackluster plan....come on. Shame on you. I understand its important to pass and may define your presidency and terms, but take a step back and look at the big picture....is your office legacy as important as the positive change you create within the US? They go hand in hand- if you do good things, history will reward you.

But, for the sake of education, here’s just a few of the additions to the bill added over the past couple months....

State money- Nebraska, Louisiana, Vermont, and Massachussetts. This is ridiculous. Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson managed to get the government to pay 100% of a statewide expansion of Medicaid. Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu pulled an extra $100million in 2011 for the state of LA.
AARP- Given an extra $1bil.

Generic Drug Makers- Forced by a 12 year protection plan for the major drug corps to hold off on production of any new biomed drugs, which will decrease competition and allow major drug corps to run up the cost and lower production with their 12 year window of basically a no-compete clause.

Doctor benefits- Doctors in the states of Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming will get paid more than any other states under the new Health Care Bill.

Tanning Salons- 10% tax increase on all indoor tanning services.

Taxpayers making over $250k a year- Hit with a .9% tax increase for Medicaid, making the total tax 2.35% for incomes or family gross over 250k.

Thats just some of the major hits you’re going to see with the new Health Care bill. It really covers a lot of different facets.

Taxpayers who make under $88,000.00 a year will be FORCED to purchase a Health Care package. Refusal to do so will cause you to incur tax fines that increase in scale per year by a set amount, or if you make over 88k they can fine you up to 2% of your net income.

I’m so shocked all of this went through...and everything I’ve just rattled out is just scraping the surface. This hasn’t even gotten into the ridiculous Executive Order promise from Obama to Stupak or the fact that Dems snuck in a Student Loan Reform reconciliation on the backend of this bill, which will completely overhaul you student loans and its subsidy...but thats something I need to devote a whole post, too.

I’m really trying to wrap my head around all of this. This thing shoots out in so many different, dizzying directions that its gonna take awhile for everybody to fully grasp this situation.