-
Neighborhood Watch, Anyone?
May 14, 2013 | 19 comments
-
We’re Still Going Backward
April 18, 2013 | 30 comments
-
Street Level Anti-Capitalism
April 8, 2013 | 71 comments
-
Snazzy Sequestered Screeners
March 8, 2013 | 13 comments
-
Welfare’s Failure Amid Red Ink
February 7, 2013 | 23 comments
The Public Policy
Defund the Pork, Pay for Health Care
Put the shameless stimulus bill to good use.
Here’s how to get the money for health care reform, and it can be done without Congress passing another trillion in spending, without putting more job-killing mandates and taxes on business, without killing off whatever incentives still remain for our best students to become physicians, and without turning millions of patients into wards of the state.
To get the cash, all Congress needs to do is repeal the authorization on spending for the remaining sums in President Barack Obama’s record-breaking and non-stimulating $787 billion stimulus bill.
A half year has passed since the rushed signing of the stimulus bill to solve the jobs “crisis,” and less than 10 percent of the money has been spent.
Politicians were super-quick to line up and get their hands on money for their pet projects — but not so good or fast at designing the type of pro-growth, pro-business legislation that would have actually stimulated the creation of real jobs in the private sector.
Instead, what we got for our money are things like a $4 million paving job on a parking lot for private jets in Aspen, Colo., and $550,000 in government spending for a new skateboard park and tennis court repairs in Pawtucket, R.I.
The skateboard park provides a nice ribbon-cutting opportunity for the local mayor, but it’s not exactly the type of spending that accelerates our economic recovery, produces long-term employment, promotes responsible fiscal policy or makes the U.S. more internationally competitive.
The message from Obama at the Feb. 17 signing of the stimulus bill was that the pork-bloated legislation would “create or save” 3.5 million jobs within two years by way of a whole slew of “shovel-ready” projects.
Instead, the shovels are still hanging in the garage, some $708 billion is stuck in the political pipeline, and more than two million more jobs have been lost in the U.S. economy since the bill’s passage.
As with his push for a quick health care bill that no one has the time to read, the February stimulus bill was another one of Obama’s rush jobs. Both the Senate and House voted on the 1,071-page bill less than 24 hours after it had been posted for the first time on the House Appropriations website.
This time around, a hurried 1,000-plus-page health care bill is designed to solve the “crisis of 47 million Americans” without health insurance by way of an ObamaCare plan that promises to deliver universal coverage and higher quality at a cheaper price.
Less into peddling nirvana, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the congressional Democrats’ health plans would increase costs in the range of $1 trillion-plus over the next decade, and that’s on top of the CBO’s projection that the federal budget’s red ink this year will reach a flood level of $1.8 trillion.
With the oft-repeated claim that 47 million Americans lack health insurance, an estimated 11 million of that number are illegal aliens. Another 17 million, according to the Census Bureau, are people who earn more than $50,000 a year and have decided not to carry health insurance. Millions more in the 47 million number are already eligible for care under Medicaid and other government programs. Millions more are temporarily between jobs.
“With reasonable adjustments,” i.e., the above deductions from the 47 million figure, “there are in fact less than 10 million individuals who are so-called ‘chronically uninsured,’” writes Dominick T. Armentano, professor emeritus of economics at the University of Hartford and a research fellow at The Independent Institute in California. “The Kaiser Family Foundation says the number could be as low as 8 million.”
At a health care policy cost of $10,000 a year per family, the price to taxpayers of covering those 10 million people with five million policies (figuring an average of two people per household) is $50 billion per year, a pittance compared to the $708 billion that’s stuck in the pipeline from Obama’s ill-designed and non-stimulating stimulus package.
Simply stated, repeal the $708 billion authorization in unspent funds for the upcoming skateboard parks and zoo enhancements and there’s plenty of enough money to provide health care coverage for 10 million people for the next decade and a half, all without a dime of new deficit spending and no job-killing tax hikes on the private sector.
Instead, Obama’s idea of reform is to demonize doctors, cut business profits and produce another trillion in red ink.
About the Author
Ralph R. Reiland is the B. Kenneth Simon professor of free enterprise and an associate professor of economics at Robert Morris University in Pittsburgh.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (33) | Leave a comment
More Articles by Ralph R. Reiland
More Articles From The Public Policy
http://spectator.org/archives/2009/08/04/defund-the-pork-pay-for-health
Follow us:
ADVERTISEMENT
Current Issue
- The (Real) Great Divide
- Ailes: A Voice for the Silent Majority
- Screwtape Talks Turkey
SPONSORED LINKS
FLASHBACK TO: 1995
-
Pope Culture
A man of faith in a godless age is hitting Americans where it hurts.
-
Why the GOP Does Not, Like, Totally Suck
Mr. and Mrs. American Spectator Reader, let P.J. O’Rourke talk sense to your kids.
-
Dames at Sea
-
In the Absence of Guns
In Britain, defending your property can get you life.
-
The Metaphysical Martini
-
Counting the Costs of Clintonism
The debacle of this president’s administration is both a cause and a symptom of the decline of American values. Unless Congress impeaches him, that decline will go on unchecked. An eminent jurist surveys the damage and assesses the chances for the recovery of our culture.
-
Chuck McHagel
It won’t take long for conservatives to scratch this presidential wannabe off their 2008 scorecard.
-
The Legacy of Old John and Mother Fresh-Roasted
-
It’s the Best Time of the Year
The American Christmas, like the songs that celebrate it, makes room for everybody under the rainbow. Is that why so many people seem to be hostile to it?
-
The Bush Crack-Up
Was the President done in by the economy, or by the politics of the economy?
Clip of the Day
H/T to National Review Online
ADVERTISEMENT
Big J| 8.4.09 @ 8:42AM
I appreciate the alternative suggestions on health care "reform", but the ruling class will never consider them.
Elections have consequences (as Linsey Grahmnesty so eloquently put it with regards to his support of Sotomayor). In other words, "We won, you lost, sit down and shut up."
This is not about health care reform. It is about the government's insatiable appetite for power. The health care industry accounts for up to 17% of our economy. What power hungry politician wouldn't love to get their hands on that?
Jen from Ohio | 8.4.09 @ 9:11AM
I whole-heartedly agree this is NOT about health care reform. It is a major power grab for control over an additional 17% of the U.S. economy, and complete CONTROL over the individual citizen. It is a massive, radical entitlement program that will bankrupt our country. Government-run health care is extremely dangerous because once it is set into place, it is irreversible, and Liberty lost is very seldom regained. More importantly, the passage of H.R. 3200 or anything like it will give the government a LEGAL means around the Bill of Rights and that will lead to making The Constitution irrelevant!
Gill O’Teen ✝✡| 8.4.09 @ 10:34AM
Typical attack on The Chosen One. Criticizing him for claiming the pork bill would "create or save" 3.5 million jobs within two years because more than two million more jobs have been lost in the U.S. economy since that bill's passage is straight out of the Limbaugh playbook. If that bill had not been passed, total job loss would now be 5.5 million jobs. 5.5 million minus 2 million is exactly 3.5 million jobs saved. I submit that my math is beyond refutation. The facts are another matter. Maybe I can be the Math Czar?
Michael L. Hauschild| 8.4.09 @ 12:03PM
Idiot. Why would I want to fund the insuring of those who chose not to have health care for the "next decade and a half." You are exactly the same form of dunce that says "Fund the Clunkers for cash, whats another two or three billion?"
Repeal the stimulus you clown, not transfer it.
Greg Morris| 8.4.09 @ 12:25PM
Michael H.
You clearly are in no position to question the intelligence of others. Try reading the article again, this time very slowly. Then read the comments of others posted here and see if you can figure out the author's point.
Joe| 8.4.09 @ 2:03PM
Gill O’Teen, are you that stupid? Where is your proof? All recessions since World War II not messed with by liberal politician have end by now and jobs were being created not lost. Get away from the MSM you need to learn the truth and it will set you free.
Big J| 8.4.09 @ 2:44PM
Joe,
Gill can take care of himself, but needed to point out that, judging by his previous posts, that was said tongue-in-cheek.
Thought you might like to know.
Brittanicus| 8.4.09 @ 3:03PM
The need to erase the blemish of illegal immigration prompted Congress to enact the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) of 1986. The IRCA toughened criminal sanctions for employers who hired illegal aliens, denied illegal aliens federally funded welfare benefits, and legitimized some aliens through an amnesty program–EXCEPT THESE LAWS NEVER WERE ENFORCED? Neither the federal government, nor state county have denied most benefits to illegal immigrants. That is why one state–California–is involved in a monstrous budget deficit? California--THE SANCTUARY STATE-- has been overrun with millions of illegal entrants, as with Arizona and other border states. An the ingredients of federal law has been a breeding ground for entitlements that have been gravely compromised by pandering to minority caucuses REMEMBER THERE ARE MANY SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS, WHO WANT ABSOLUTELY NO RESTRICTIONS ON HOW MANY PEOPLE CAN BE ALLOWED INTO THE US?.
It would be untrue to accuse just the Democrats for this, because all politicians have been involved in distracting–THE PEOPLE–from the real issues that cost them billions of dollars. The population falls for these distractions every time, so they can hit you with either higher taxes or give huge tax reimbursements to their corporate comrades. Illegal immigration is a major depletion of every tax treasury, throughout this land. Giving any kind of AMNESTY will enhance the predictable–OVERPOPULATION. The complete neglect of our interstate highway system, tunnels and bridges is just the slow eroding of our infrastructure. In the near future the population growth will explode, to over another hundred million people. IT would be an unmentionable catastrophe to open the doors wide at the border, giving millions of illegal immigrant’s expressway to a path to citizenship. Already our Senate has voted to give illegal immigrants and families a right to access the new health care provisions--WHICH THE TAXPAYER WILL PAY FOR?
THEREFORE THIS IS A FREE WELFARE FOR ALL PARIAH BUSINESSES THAT STILL HIRE ILLEGAL LABORERS.
You must decide the future of future generations, because just my ranting will have very little influence on the power brokers in Washington. Call your Senator or Congressman at 202-224-3121 and impress on the people you vote into office that you want an alternative to the predatory health care insurers. You want the right to choose? That includes the Universal government run system that certainly isn’t any worse than the profiteering insurers. That you also want your political representative to sever any path to citizenship, but to enforce a firm, permanent--ALL ENCOMPASSING-- E-Verify, police 287(g) enforcement and not to rescind the no-match letter or weaken ICE raids. Tell them you are a voter and convey to them, as you voted them into office as you can remove them, just as easy? Read the naked true facts by GOOGLING--NUMBERSUSA
Michael L. Hauschild| 8.4.09 @ 3:43PM
Mr. Morris,
“Simply stated, repeal the $708 billion authorization in unspent funds for the upcoming skateboard parks and zoo enhancements and there's plenty of enough money to provide health care coverage for 10 million people for the next decade and a half, all without a dime of new deficit spending and no job-killing tax hikes on the private sector.”
That is my money (I pay taxes), you are defending the fact that he seems to think the unspent stimulus provides “plenty of money” (my unspent money) to pay insurance for someone else. “New deficit spending” is objectionable but using some of the “old deficit spending” differently would be acceptable. Even the suggestion of me paying for someone else’s health care should not even be discussed or suggested. This is just another economist providing “something else, or something different.” Economists, by the way, only do two things; they use hindsight to denigrate how other economists function and suggest new innovative ways to spend your money. Want proof, re-read the article.
Pingback| 8.4.09 @ 5:13PM
How to Fund Health Care | The Barbican links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
DaveinPhoenix| 8.5.09 @ 12:47AM
I absolutely will not help fund a nation of obese, drug/ alcohol dependent, welfare loving, lazy and irresponsible people who put a Democratic Socialist Congress in place and a waste of sperm President using the biggest political give-away in American history: the Stimulus Package. A loud "no to both" !
I'd much rather have our Republican Congress back - those who gave us federal budget surpluses ('98-'01), low unemployment, and a nation which didn't allow third world countries to shoot missiles at us.
توبيكات | 12.17.09 @ 11:20PM
Verry Good
دليل مواقع | 12.17.09 @ 11:20PM
Thanks
حكاوينا | 12.18.09 @ 12:12AM
Thanks
جلسات | 12.18.09 @ 12:14AM
Verry Good