Shimkus Questions Sebelius on Budget Gimmicks in the Health Care Law

On Thursday, March 3, 2011, the House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee, chaired by Rep. Joe Pitts (R-PA) held a hearing with Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to discuss the president's fiscal year 2012 budget requests and implementation of the health care law.

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[ltsgt1]

It's amazing that Bernie Madoff is the only crook who got put away in jail.

[iamlost2]

It is both, not double dipping. Wean off SS Medicare to affordable health care. She explained that plain.

[ddlynn100]

Gotcha! just keep holding on to that point maybe in a year or so it will become clear. Maybe by that time the President will have provided us all with healthcare and more jobs, and hopefully when you a not so desperate fighting someone elses battle you can take off the blinders and stop fighting someone else's politics. You are one of the 99% and you know it. Fight for us not the decievers.

[NCMan28025]

@ddlynn100 No, you just stick your head in the sand and ignore the fact. The entire ObamaCare law is a scam. Notice they recently ended the CLASS Act because it was self sustainable? It is double counting to those of us who can do math and logic. She admitted it. Watch and listen to the video very closely and you will see for yourself or just stick your fingers in your ears and deny the truth.

[ddlynn100]

@NCMan28025 No she did what I've learned to do give up people hear what the want hear. Its called guarded truth nothing can penetrate that donut hole.

[megarational]

@NCMan28025 Lets give an example from one end of the spectrum for illustration.

A kid inherits apartments from his old man.

The apartment rents keep the kid wealthy, partying around the world, while the apartments continue to increase his wealth by virtue of real estate values rising in the area the apt's are located.

Where is all his money continue to come from?

Not his hard work.

It's coming from the hard work of the Americans who are paying the rent in his apartments.

[megarational]

@NCMan28025 1, h) the economic:

increasing tax on the rich allows a lower tax on those in the middle/lower class. A rich person will use some of each additional dollar to save, play the stock market, invest overseas, or speculate in real estate - none of which has a major impact on domestic demand or jobs.

By contrast, an extra $ in the hands of someone living paycheck to paycheck is spent immediately, entirely, and domestically - which has a greater effect on demand & jobs.

[megarational]

@NCMan28025 1, g) now, having pointed out the fallacies of the stereotypes of the wealthy and the "not wealthy", and the growing wealth inequality, lets make the social and economic argument for increasing tax on the rich.

The social:

"Another means of silently lessening the inequality of property is

to exempt all from taxation below a certain point, and to tax the

higher portions of property in geometrical progression as they

rise."

--Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 1785

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[megarational]

@NCMan28025 1. f) Wikipedia: The aggregate income distribution is highly concentrated towards the top, with the top 6.37% earning roughly one third of all income, and those with upper-middle incomes controlling a large, though declining, share of the income.

Demand stagnated because the mid & lower class have been robbed of purchasing power due to stagnating wages, unemployment, and siphoning off of the wealth to the top end.

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[megarational]

@NCMan28025 1. e) Cut and paste from the US census: the long-term trend has been toward increasing income inequality. Since 1969, the share of aggregate household income controlled by the lowest income quintile has decreased from 4.1 percent to 3.6 percent in 1997, while the share to the highest quintile increased from 43.0 percent to 49.4 percent. Most noticeably, the share of income controlled by the top 5 percent of households has increased from 16.6 percent to 21.7 percent

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[megarational]

@NCMan28025 1, d) So, having dealt with the bullshit generalizations about the rich, lets examine whether increasing tax on the wealthy is fair and makes sense for both social and economic reasons.

The top 1% own 35% of the nations totals wealth, the top 10% possess 80% of all financial assets and the bottom 90% hold only 20% of all financial wealth.

2010, the Central Intelligence Agency indicated that the U.S. sits 93rd in the world for wealth inequality, between Iran and Mexico.

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