Rebuttal to Rebuttal

I loved Obama’s speech, but then again, I love Obama. So no surprise there. So to the fun part: The Republican Rebuttal

The rebuttal was obviously written before the speech was ever given, or Representative Boustany wouldn’t have started out with the lie (which Obama refuted in the first few minutes of HIS speech) that you will have to give up your healthcare and switch to a government program. Or, maybe I’m naïve and he would have said that anyway. Heck, if you listened to Obama’s speech you’d see that Lord …uhm…Rep. Boustany essentially wanted the same things Obama did, including “let[ting] families and businesses buy insurance across state lines”. That’s funny, that sounds a lot like the Health Exchange the bill proposes.

Before I started rebutted the Republican Health Care proposals I had to find them. Last night when I tried to go to healthcare.gop.gov it said “invalid host name”. It was as if even the internet knew that GOP and healthcare don’t mix. It’s now working, just not immediately after the speech.

I did eventually find the “common sense” reforms that some Republicans were offering, but it still seems that there is a disconnect between Republicans and the American people. I read through Roy Blunt’s suggestions (His was the first listed, but I’ll read through the others later, if for no other reason than to rip them apart like I’m about to rip Blunt’s), and it seems Republicans think that the Americans have the money to buy coverage right now, they just aren’t incentivized to do so. One of Blunt’s proposals:

“ Brings greater fairness to the tax code by extending tax savings to those who currently do not have employer-provided insurance but purchase health insurance on their own. This provision would provide an “above the line” deduction that is equal to the cost of an individual’s or family’s insurance premiums.
• Provides immediate substantial financial assistance, through new refundable and advanceable tax credits, to low- and modest-income Americans”


Alright, so I dish out (based on the cheapest individual plan I found so far) $150 a month and in April I’ll get that money back. Wait, no I won’t!

This is one of those ways that Republican’s always make things sound good. It’s a tax savings, woo hoo! However, this isn’t really money back. (or as I’m about to show much savings)

Let me explain. When you do your taxes, all the money that is withheld from your paycheck is considered your total payments.

After you adjust your income, you use a tax table to determine what the tax you owe is.

If your payments are greater than your liability, you get a refund, if not you owe. Based on Blunt’s plan, you reduce your Adjusted Gross Income, dropping you into a lower tax bracket so you get a bigger refund.

Let’s see how this works out for a single female with an adjusted gross income, before Blunt’s tax credit, of 30K. The taxes she owes are: 4108.75 (based on last year’s totals), she had withheld from her paycheck $4476 (using my totals from 2002, which is when my AGI was around 30K) so she gets a refund of $367.25.

Now with the Tax savings from Republican plan: (let’s let her pay my premium for a year, $1800) so we adjust her gross income by this amount. $28,200. Tax she owes: $3838.75. Refund: 637.25 a difference of $270. WOW! Sign me up. I’ll gladly pay $1800/year for an extra $270 on April 15th. Who wouldn’t? Oh, yeah…everyone. The above the line tax credit would get NO ONE to sign up. Thanks Roy Blunt, congressman from Missouri, you did absolutely nothing to solve the uninsured problem.

Though I will say that the second part might help as a “refundable& advanceable” tax credit would be like the Earned Income Credit which might actually help you afford coverage, depending, of course, on how they define “low- and modest-income Americans”. No confusion on the Democratic plan on who they’ll help: HR3200 says it will offer credits to people up to 400% of the Federal Poverty Level. (which means if you’re making 3x the FPL you get assistance: A family of 4 making $66,000/yr would get help.)

I encourage you to read Blunt’s proposal. It has many other items it claims will reduce costs or help people, but in actuality it won’t. Quick examples:
1. incentives to use health savings accounts
2. “Encourages (not mandates, which means, “we’re not going to force you, you do it if you want”) states to create a Universal Access Program by establishing and/or reforming existing programs to guarantee all Americans, regardless of pre-existing conditions or past illnesses, have access to affordable coverage. (short version: Encourages nothing)
3. Promotes prevention and wellness by giving employers and insurers greater flexibility to financially reward employees who seek to achieve or maintain a healthy weight, quit smoking, and manage chronic illnesses like diabetes. (Now I can legally give that hot blond a raise, instead of that fat dude)
4. Encourages the creation of health plan finders to provide patients with the tools to easily find the right health plan that best meets their needs. (Encourages again, you know I can encourage my dog to pee outside all I want, if I don’t take him outside, he’s going to pee on the carpet.)
5. Makes health care more convenient by eliminating bureaucratic red tape to expand access to Community Health Centers that are so critical to underserved areas, both in large cities and in rural America. (I can go to that Health Center, where the doctor charges me $80 upfront to tell me there’s nothing wrong, and I waited 2 hours to see, As opposed to a $25 co-pay to see a traditional doctor with insurance. Thank you Republican party.)

What all this shows me is that the Republican party has a fundamental misunderstanding of the problem, and what the average American needs. The Democratic plan would solve the problems of the affordability and coverage, the Republican plans won’t. Especially when the Democratic plan mandates that large Employers like Walmart (the largest employer of people in the US would have to offer affordable health insurance to their employees. That’s a lot of low-income workers getting coverage for the first time. The Democratic plan also sets limits on how high a premium can be, what better way is there to control costs than that!

I hope the speech at least rallys the Democrats if nothing else. We only need 51 votes in the Senate to pass the bill, we need 60 to stop a fillibuster. Hopefully the Blue Dog Democrats will at least prevent the fillibuster, and allow the majority to rule. At least that’s my hope.

jr.