UG> I know the progressives want single payer, but unless we pay down our
UG> budget deficit a bit, I do not feel comfortable with the start up
UG> costs.
Reforming our tax system such that all incomes pay something approximating a
fair share, and reforming defense spending, would go a long way toward paying
for the creation of a national health system and a stable Social Security
system.
Non-exhaustive example: Defense spending is known to be rife with waste, but
efforts to control it and figure out what money is actually being spent on
are stymied at every turn (and this week's firing of the Inspector General
at DOD will not help). Defense spending is the number general line item in
the budget after Social Security (see below), yet nobody wants to make any
serious effort to touch it. Social Security used to be the third rail of
politics; now it seems to be guns.
Non-exhaustive example: Social security could be considerably shored up by
lifting the maximum income limit on the tax (currently approximately $176,000).
Non-exhaustive example: Taxing capital gains at a higher rate than we do
presently, especially for gains values over $1 million. Currently, the
individual rate sits at 20%, down from a maximum of 35% in 1979, and the
corporate rate sits at 21%, down from a maximum of 35% beginning in 1993. Yet
it's well known that large corporations pay little to nothing, sometimes even
getting millions to hundreds of millions in refunds. In a fair system, that
would not happen.
Instead, politicians focus on penny-anty nonsense like cutting NASA and the
USPS (both respectively less than 0.06% of the total spend in 2024). The USPS
in particular would be self-supporting if not for that silly retirement
pre-funding accounting gimmick that no other business in the world is required
to use. (And there is a significant argument to be made that not everything
must be for-profit.)
On the other hand, Republicans seem to have a significant aversion to doing
anything at all that will help average people and make their lives easier.
Non-exhaustive examples: Proposals to repeal the ACA without any kind of plan
to replace it, despite now having had 14 years to come up with something;
litigation and plans in legislation to destroy the SAVE plan for student loan
borrowers; continual attempts to tighten eligibility for Medicaid, SSDI,
SNAP and school lunches.
But hey, eggs are supposed to get cheaper (but hey, aren't).
ag
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