Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on July 18, 2009

Sheep being led to the slaughterhouse | Life, June 1950, Chile | Photo credit: Eliot Elisofon

Democrats in Congress are proposing a horrific nationalized health care program for Americans that is much like the Eastern Bloc, sheep-herding welfare programs of communist nations after World War II and before the Fall of the Iron Curtain. Sheep ultimately being led to the slaughterhouse, where personal freedoms, liberties, choices, rights, and incomes were restricted or taken away by the government and the rights of the individual to make personal choices were denied or severely limited.

The “socialist slaughterhouse” kills the personal freedoms Americans are guaranteed by our US Constitution, thus increasing the power the government has over most aspects of our lives. Grabbing more of our personal earnings in new and higher taxes while diminishing our quality of life.

Socialized health care systems, with their high costs/high tax rates to fund them, government-healthcare rationing, bureaucratic red tape, medical provider shortages, and resulting substandard health care, have not worked as promised. Not by a long shot.

In the UK’s Parliament, most of the floor discussions are about the inadequacies of their government-run health care program, of it always being underfunded and inefficient. Many countries are now working toward revising their government-run plans to permit private health care and health insurances. Congress and Pres. Obama will destroy us financially with this reckless, expensive socialized health care, as well as rip away most of our liberties.

Call, email, or fax your congressmen immediately and tell them, politely but firmly, NO to ObamaCare.

The Wall Street Journal has analyzed much of the socialized health care bill and below are some of the harsh, frightening realities that were discovered. Hello, Eastern Bloc… goodbye, America.

Wall Street Journal: A Reckless Congress
Democrats want to ram through one of the greatest raids on private income and business in American history.
July 17, 2009

Democrats want to ram through one of the greatest raids on private income and business in American history.

Say this about the 1,018-page health-care bill that House Democrats unveiled this week and that President Obama heartily endorsed: It finally reveals at least some of the price of the reckless ambitions of our current government. With huge majorities and a President in a rush to outrun the declining popularity of his agenda, Democrats are bidding to impose an unrepealable European-style welfare state in a matter of weeks.

Mr. Obama’s February budget provided the outline, but the House bill now fills in the details. To wit, tax increases that would take U.S. rates higher even than most of Europe. Yet even those increases aren’t nearly enough to finance the $1 trillion in new spending, which itself is surely a low-ball estimate. Meanwhile, the bill would create a new government health entitlement that will kill private insurance and lead to a government-run system.

Hyperbole? That’s what people said when we warned about this last fall in “A Liberal Supermajority,” but even we underestimated the ideological willfulness of today’s national Democrats. Consider only a few of the details:

Revised US income tax rates if ObamaCare becomes law

A huge new income surtax. The bill’s main financing comes from another tax increase on top of the increase already scheduled for 2011 under Mr. Obama’s budget. The surtax starts at one percentage point for adjusted gross income above $350,000 in 2011, rising to two points in 2013; a 1.5 point surtax at incomes above $500,000, rising to three in 2013; and a whopping 5.4 percentage points in 2011 and beyond on incomes above $1 million.

This would raise the top marginal federal tax rate back to roughly 47% or 48%, if you include the Medicare tax and the phase-out of certain deductions and exemptions. With the current top rate at 35%, this would be the largest rate increase outside the Great Depression or world wars.

The average U.S. top combined state-federal marginal tax rate would hit about 52%. This would be higher than in all but three (Denmark, Sweden, Belgium) of the 30 countries measured by the OECD. According to the nearby table compiled by the Heritage Foundation, taxpayers in at least five U.S. states would pay higher marginal rates even than Sweden. South Korea, which Democrats worry is stealing American jobs, would be able to grab even more as its highest rate is a far more competitive 38.5%.

House Democrats say they deserve credit for being honest about the tax increases needed to fund their ambitions. But then they also claim that this surtax would raise $544 billion in new revenue over 10 years. America’s millionaires aren’t that stupid; far fewer of them will pay these rates for very long, if at all. They will find ways to shelter income, either by investing differently or simply working less. Small businesses that pay at the individual rate will shift to pay the 35% corporate rate. When the revenue doesn’t materialize, Democrats will move to soak the middle class with a European-style value-added tax.

Phony numbers. Democrats will have to come up with something, because even the surtax puts their bill at least $300 billion short of honest financing. The public insurance “option” doesn’t even begin until 2013 and the costs are heavily weighted toward the later years, but the tax hikes start in 2011. So under Congress’s 10-year budget window, the House bill is able to pay for seven years of spending with nine years of taxes. Andy Laperriere of the ISI Group estimates the bill would add $95 billion to the deficit in 2019 alone.

Then there’s yesterday’s testimony, from Congressional Budget Office (CBO) Director Doug Elmendorf, that ObamaCare’s cost “savings” are an illusion. Mr. Obama claims government can cover more people and pay less to do it. But Mr. Elmendorf told the Senate Finance Committee that “In the legislation that has been reported we don’t see the sort of fundamental changes that would be necessary to reduce the trajectory of federal spending by a significant amount. And on the contrary, the legislation significantly expands the federal responsibility for health-care costs.”

Further on the public plan: “It raises the amount of activity that is growing at this unsustainable rate.”

No matter, Speaker Nancy Pelosi is whisking the bill through House committees even before CBO has had a chance to score it in detail. As Wisconsin Republican Paul Ryan put it to us, “We will not have read it, and we will not have a score of it, but we will have passed it out of committee.”

A new payroll tax. Unemployment is at 9.5% and rising, but Democrats will nonetheless impose a new eight percentage point payroll tax on employers who don’t provide health insurance for employees. This is on top of the current 15% payroll tax, and in addition to a new 2.5-percentage point tax on individuals who don’t buy health insurance. This means that any employer with more than $400,000 in payroll would have to pay at least 25% above the salary to hire someone. Result: Many fewer new jobs, with a higher structural jobless rate, much as Europe has experienced as its welfare states have expanded.

Other new taxes, including an as yet undetermined levy on private health plans. This tax, which Democrats say could raise $100 billion or so, would make it even harder for private plans to compete with the government plan, which would already benefit from government subsidies and lower capital costs. For good measure, the House bill also gets the ball rolling on tax increases on foreign-source corporate income.

We could go on, and we will in coming days. But the most remarkable quality of this health-care exercise is its reckless disregard for economic and fiscal reality. With the economy still far from a healthy recovery, and the federal fisc already nearly $2 trillion in deficit, Democrats want to ram through one of the greatest raids on private income and business in American history. The world is looking on, agog, and wondering why the United States seems intent on jumping off this cliff.

Additional:
NASDAQ.com: Centrist Dem Leader: Has Committee Votes To Block Health Bill
Politico: RNC website takes aim at Democrat health care plan
Goodtimepolitics: Blue Dogs threaten to bring down Pelosi’s healthcare bill
Scared Monkeys: Same Old Tired Blame Game from Obama: Support for Obamacare is Crumbling … Moderates and Democrats Running from Socialized Healthcare
Blog de KingShamus: Obambi: We’re passing Health Care Deform This Year
Stop The ACLU: Running Low on Political Capital, Obama in a Rush to Pass Socialist Medicine
Breitbart.com: Healthcare battle ‘isn’t about me’: Obama
RightPundits.com: Obama Heath Care Rationing: Paid ‘Grassroots’ Human Rights Campaign
Mary Katharine Ham, The Weekly Standard: Obama Loves Mayo, But Mayo Does Not Love Him (Update: Gibbs Responds, Badly)
Teh Resistance Blog: If ObamaCare Is So Great, Why Do They Need Republican Support?
Sister Toldjah: CBO pours cold water on Obama admin’s claims about “savings” from ObamaCare
Random Thoughts: Kennedy: Let’s Ration Health Care
Grand Rants: Baby Boomers: Start Shouting Now!
The Powers That Be: The Wit and Wisdom of Hospital Signs, Part XII
Veteran Outrage: Obama lied about the costs of Obamacare!
Michelle Malkin: Barack Obama speaks the truth! Update: Mayo not okay-o with Obamacare and Glimpse of Obamacare future: 83 million would lose private coverage and The more he talks about nationalizing health care and spending more money… and Senate committee passes health care takeover, 13-10 and Inside the monstrous Obamacare bureaucracy and Socialized health care and the death of choice and Obamacare in the House: Do the Blue Dogs have any bite?
John Boehner: Republican Chart Outlines House Democrats’ Government Takeover of Health Care
Gary Graham, Big Hollywood: Obama-Care Can Kill You
HotMES: Obama, you’re a politician, it’s always about politics!
Frugal Café Blog Zone: ‘Fat-Cat City’ with Bloated, Complicated ObamaCare Bureaucracy: Check Out the Scary-Huge Organizational Chart of House Democrats’ Single-Payer Health Plan
and Billions, Trillions, and More: CBO Releases Appalling Dollar Amount for Crappy ObamaCare and Bad News: Sen. Feingold Admits What We’ve Suspected All Along: Obama’s “Public” Health Care Plan Meant to Ultimately Push Americans to Single-Payer Health Care
American Elephants: They Lie, and Lie, and Lie in a Raw Grab for Power. Are You Going to Let Them Get Away With It?
NewsBusters: Huff-Po: Democrats Proving Again That Compromise is Not an Option on Health Care
Ztower: President Obama Likes, Doesn’t Like, Likes, Doesn’t Like and Really Won’t Like This CBO Report.
Health Care BS: OBAMACARE: THE BUREAUCRACY FROM HELL
Matt Towery, Townhall.com: Americans Are Against the Health Care Proposal
Frank DeMartini, Big Hollywood: Obama’s Next Folly – Health Care
JustOneMinute: Well, It Is Sort Of An Option
Gary Graham, Big Hollywood: Obama Wants to Buck Us Up
Radio Vice Online: Teaching Old People to Die Quietly
Patterico’s Pontifications: Obamacare: The Screeching of the Nutroots
Alarming News: You must agree
Americans for Tax Reform: Radio Silence from Obama: House Dem Health Bill Violates Obama’s Tax Pledge
Hot Air Green Room: Beyond rationing: controlling more than “health”
Hot Air: Obama hiding the budget numbers until August recess and President boldly vows: My economy-wrecking health care bill will pass this year and CBO: House version of ObamaCare adds $239 billion to deficit (Democrats respond by cooking the books) and Obama promises: I won’t sign any health-care bill that adds to the deficit and Rasmussen: Public shifting away from “public plan” and Bombshell: CBO chief tells Congress ObamaCare will “significantly expand” federal spending; Report: Bipartisan deal close? and Does ObamaCare outlaw private insurance? and WaPo: House health-care surtax “bad policy” and Health-Care Plan Would Add Surtax On Wealthy and Statist health care, by the numbers and CBO cost estimate of House health-care bill: A cool trillion over 10 years and ObamaCare: Taxing the uninsured and Will ObamaCare threaten medical innovation? and Obama: Let’s work together to destroy American health care by year’s end and Video: Are the elderly cost effective?

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