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As pointed out in the WSJ, Congress is returning to work and will start the health care debate once again. The hot topic of possibly creating an individual based insurance system will be up for discussion. Bush wants one that includes a credit or deduction of $15, 000 for a family or $7500 for an individual that would apply against both the income and payroll tax. Romney and Giuliani also like this idea. The other option is a refundable tax credit. A family would receive $5400 and an individual would get $2160. Now here is the laughable part. The refund would even go to those who pay no taxes at all making it basically a handout. It would require $800 billion over 10 years to subsidize the health care for lower earners. As the article states, once embedded in the tax code, this “entitlement” would never go away. Both plans are basically Republican but what is still confusing to me is that it seems to just be redistributing wealth. As we all know, these kinds of plans never truly work. Robin Hood is just a fable. So is the lesson of teaching people to fish versus just giving them the fish. Hey, what happened to all those $3000 VISA debit cards they gave out after Katrina?
