Health Care

In March 2010, Democrats in Congress finally passed the health care legislation they had been trying to enact since January 2009. And though we already spend over 17% of GDP on health care, this trillion-dollar plan piles on even more spending. Without listening to the public, Democrats passed this massive government takeover of health care,  creating more spending, expanding bureaucracy, and ensuring that the already confusing health care system will only get worse. All throughout the debate, Democrats in Congress and even President Obama declared that the Republicans offered no alternatives for their health care reform plan. Nothing could have bene further from the truth. Now that Obamacare has passed, what do we do now? The Heritage Foundation offers some solutions.

The first thing Heritage recommends is to repeal Obamacare. Heritage Action for America, the sister organization of The Heritage Foundation, has been leading the charge to repeal Obamacare by presenting Members of Congress who voted against Obamacare with a Discharge Petition that would force Congress to vote on repealing Obamacare. The Heritage Foundation also wants to give citizens control of their health care through Tax Equity, which would give individuals who buy health coverage on their own (separate from their employer) the same kind of tax breaks that people get when they purchase from their employer. Today, they receive no tax breaks. Health Care also needs to be portable, like car insurance to remain cost-effective and efficient.

Tax Reform

The Corporate Tax rate in America is the second highest tax rate in the world. This makes America less competitive than most other countries in this global economy. On top of that, America is one of only a few countries that taxes corporations on income they earn in other countries. These are large disincentives for corporations to stay headquartered in America. As a result, jobs are moving overseas. Another tax that will hurt American small businesses is the return of the Estate Tax, also called “the Death Tax.” Democrats claim that the Death Tax will only hurt the wealthy, but most small business owners file as individuals, not as a corporation, and they will suffer the most. Their profits are razor thin, and a burdensome tax imposed just because someone died could cause the beneficiaries of an estate to lay off employees or go out of business for good in order to meet their tax burdens.

The obvious solution is to repeal the Death Tax. It has not been an issue for a few years, but it is set to come back on January 1, 2011. Another major threat that will affect all Americans is the largest tax hike in history, set to arrive on January 1, 2011. Congress must act. The corporate income tax should also be lowered to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) level of 26% tax rate. The United States is currently at a staggering 39% tax rate, making it nearly impossible for us to compete internationally.

Entitlements

There is a huge crisis that will soon hit us with the force of a tsunami: spending on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, otherwise known as entitlement spending. If those expenditures continue at the current rate, it will consume all tax revenues by 2052. To pay for these programs by raising taxes, Congress would have to double the federal income tax rate on future generations. That is simply not an option. So what can be done?

To fix Social Security, The Heritage Foundation recommends that America set up voluntary savings accounts. That way Social Security would act as a “real insurance,” providing a safety net for the poor –  the people who really need the benefits. Because people are living longer, the retirement age needs to be raised and people over the retirement age should be removed from payroll taxes. Medicare can be fixed by actually defining the amount we want to spend on it and sticking to it, instead of just making open-ended promises. It would be capped and reviewed periodically. Fixing Medicaid revolves around the idea of a patient-centered care for the disabled and the elderly giving them a say in what care they receive. In the end, it needs to be insurance based.

Welfare

Another run-away spending program is the Welfare program. Heritage analyst Robert Rector called the growth of the welfare state unsustainable. Spending is expected to go up $10.3 trillion in just ten years. Obama’s FY 2011 Budget calls for a $958 billion increase from 2008. There is a way to solve this problem though.

Instead of giving people welfare grants, the government should give out loans to welfare recipients that would have to be paid back. This would lead to an increase in behaviors that would prevent them from have to go back to welfare in the future. After the recession ends, Congress can roll back all 71 of the means-tested welfare programs and provide fiscal restraint to all of them. Work should also be a requirement for all able-bodied welfare recipients. Currently, if you get married while on welfare, you get penalized. These penalties should be eliminated to promote families, instead of out-of-wedlock births.

The Heritage Foundation’s “Solutions for America” offers over 120 policy solutions on over 20 issue areas. It is a good roadmap for the next Congress, and it can get us back on the road to freedom and prosperity.

The government has had a lot of missteps. The EPA would not allow ships to skim oil from the water because they couldn’t get 100% of the oil out. They could only get 99% of the oil out. They failed to get rid of the horribly outdated Jones Act that forbids foreign vessels from helping us clean up the gulf. There have been plenty of problems with the way the Federal Government has reacted to the oil spill, but it’s never too late to start getting it right.

The Heritage Foundation has put together a list of things the Obama administration can do to mitigate the damage that the oil slick can still do. These are steps that can be taken immediately, and more items will be added to the list when appropriate. Simple things like waiving the Jones Act (as the Bush Administration did during Katrina), or accepting international assistance. Or allowing ships like the S.S. A-Whale–that has the capability to skim 500,000 barrels a day– to immediately start assisting efforts. It’s in the Gulf now, but it is still not being used.

One thing they should not do is halt the exploration for oil. The economy of the gulf relies heavily on oil exploration and The Heritage Foundation recommends President Obama end the moratorium on drilling. It is a knee-jerk reaction that has devastating long-term consequences. The list also calls for common sense solutions like not cutting the Coast Guard’s budget, and temporarily waiving EPA regulations that make no sense in these desperate times.

The Heritage Foundation’s list includes other things that should be done and it will be updated as items get completed. Read it here, and check back often, as they keep the administration accountable to the crisis he needs to lead us through.

Getting people involved in the process sounds like a good thing on the surface, but the EPA (and all other Administrative Agencies) are not beholden to public opinion. They offer the public a chance to weigh in on the process by letting you weigh in with comments, but they are unelected officials and, thus, have no reason to listen to anyone and make regulations that could kill the economy. Aren’t they great?

Well, thankfully, not everyone thinks regulations are the “bees knees”. The Heritage Foundation submitted  a video to the contest explaining how awful some regulations can be to economy.

They also encourage you to submit a video of your own just like Americans for Prosperity has . Let’s see if we can flood the contest with videos that explain the harmful effects of regulations. Maybe they’ll get the message.

Liberals sold us a bill of goods that no one wanted to buy with Health Care, and now they are trying to do it again under the guise of “Financial Reform”. Please.

It is true that there is a strong liberal majority in the House and Senate. However, that cannot be explained to the fact that this nation leans to the left. Moulitsas makes no mention to the fact that without Obama at the top of the ticket, conservatives have done very well. In the special runoff election a month after Obama was elected, Saxby Chambliss was elected with 57 percent of the vote, nearly 10 more percentage points then he had a month earlier in the general election. Or the stunning victory of Scot Brown in MA by 5 percentage points to win a seat that had been  inhabited by a Democrat for 47 years. He also pays no mention to the fact that Virginia, who has two Democrat Senators and voted for Obama in 2008, elected a strong conservative by a margin of 19 points in 2009. He also ignores the fact that in New Jersey they elected a Republican governor.

In the election of 2006 and 2008 voters wanted change, but they did not want the major change that the Obama administration is trying to achieve. Obama won the election by running on conservative ideals like cutting taxes and cutting spending.  In fact, Obama’s plan to tax people that made over $250,000 was a highly contested issue in the election. The American people did not vote a complete government takeover of health care.

According to Rasmussen, 75% of Americans are at least somewhat angry at the government’s current policies. That is a staggering number that should send a message that you cannot govern from the left, especially if you campaign from the right. If Markos truly believes that the Center-Right nation is a myth, he should look no further than the 9/12 March on Washington.