The Joel Gaines Show  

While there is often a great difference between what people say in candidacy and what they do in office, I am afraid of what is being said by all of the current candidates regarding health insurance for Americans.

What we are being offered is a trifecta of stupid ideas, which have no chance of doing anything to improve health care, nor make it more available. I mentioned earlier in the year that John McCain’s health care plan was going to grow government, but more information is coming our that you should understand.

In the “Before taxes  deductions” column of my pay statement are “Health” and “Dental”. John McCain’s plan will change that. While John McCain wants to offer a $5,000 tax credit for health care, he also wants to move health care into the taxable income bracket. What does this do? Looking at this from a very shallow, strictly monetary standpoint of the average employee, it does nothing. If you have 2500-3000 dollars in cost for insurance today, plus about 2K in out of pocket expenses, you are close to break even.

However, companies now lose almost all of the incentive to offer subsidized health benefits - because they will also be taxed - which makes these benefits either vastly more costly to the average American or incents the companies to drop health care from their compensation packages altogether.  In a climate where businesses are already struggling with the cost of health care for employees, this is going to damage us economically - but more importantly, the morale of the average worker in America will be impacted severely.

The answer to the cost of health care is not creative finances and more government involvement. It is not taking from the average American worker to give to those who have less. The answer is to attack those things which make health care so expensive.  Health care is expensive for several reasons, but the largest reason is liability. Doctors are insured to ridiculous levels because of liability and the potential for punitive judgments against them. Doctors are more apt to order procedures which are not necessary to the case because of liability.

If the government wants to help Americans with health care costs and really wants to make health care more accessible, they should insert themselves in reforming medical tort policy.  Insurance rates would go down for doctors and Americans would be less prodded and prescribed. The cost of medical attention would decrease almost immediately.

Barak Obama doesn't think the American people need relief from government - he opposes a temporary hold on gas taxes to help folks get through the summer. John McCain called for a suspension of the government taxes on fuel, which was quickly parroted by Hillary Clinton. Despite the media making it sound like Hillary and McCain are in agreement (which would pull Hillary closer to the center), there is a big difference between their plans for a gas tax holiday.

Again, John McCain wants the government to provide relief to Americans by getting out of the process for a few months. Hillary's plan is to punish "Big Oil" by having the oild companies pay for the "tax holiday". This means that Hillary is not proposing a tax holiday at all, but is tying back into Nancy Pelosi's plan of cutting into oil company profits.

"We have a choice," Clinton told a crowd in Hendersonville, N.C., ahead of Tuesday's primary. "We can choose to have you continue to pay the federal gas tax this summer or we can choose to try to make the oil companies pay it out of their record profits."

She proposed an "excess profit tax" on oil companies, although she did not name which companies should be taxed.

"(Oil companies) have record profits that they frankly are just sitting there counting because they are not doing anything new to earn it; they are just taking advantage of what's going on," Clinton said. "We ought to say, 'Wait a minute, we'd rather have the oil companies pay the gas tax than the drivers of North Carolina, especially truck drivers, or the farmers, or other people who have to commute long distances.'"

What this all boils down to is actually very simple. Hillary calls her plan a tax holiday, but the plan is actually a mirror of Barak Obama's plan - while sounding like she agrees with John McCain. We called William Jefferson Clinton, "Slick Willy". We need to call Hillary Rodham Clinton, "Slick Hilly".

Now, the insidious part of this whole thing is what Hillary and Nancy know that you might not have thought of yet. People "poo poo" the idea that the liberals in our country are little more than communists. Meaning they want a strong, authoritarian government that supplies most of the people's needs and they want to redistribute wealth from everyone except the political elite. Here is another example.

When Pelosi, Obama, and Clinton talk about punishing "Big Oil", they are talking about punishing the millions of people who have a mutual fund, a retirement fund, or a 401k.

78% of Conoco Phillips is owned by investment and mutual fund holders.

53% of Exxon Mobile is owned by investment and mutual fund holders.

Less than one percent in each of these companies is owned by insiders.

So, who pays for Hillary's gas tax holiday? You do.

Some holiday - but that is Slick Hilly for you. She will give you an apple for free, if you will pay her for the priviledge of taking it from her. What a sham.