I'm re-posting these comments of my sister in this blog because this is an important subject for discussion (has some dated references). The film in question is Michael Moore's " Sicko " I have always been very interested in health care issues and am wondering where the National proposals will go.. I found this movie helpful to see the testimonies in front of congress, Americans living abroad attitudes about health care in other places and other points about the system.. The new surgeon general mentioned some of these issues about access to health care this week... Thursday, July 16th, 2009 The Movie Channel, this evening, will be airing the Oscar-nominated documentary, "Sicko," Michael Moore's film about a villain known as the health insurance industry. With the debate raging in Washington, D.C. -- Republicans trying to scuttle it, the President trying to hang on to his public option, and nearly a hundred members of Congress pushing for a single-payer s...
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Individuals who earn most of their money from dividends pay a low rate on that income, partly because that money has already been taxed at the corporate tax rate of 35%. Add to that the 15% dividend tax and you have one of the highest income tax rates in the world.
Add to this that we're talking about a tax on capital which is the money that goes into growing businesses and creating jobs and you have a policy which is not going to be doing anything to help our economy.
As the President now says, this is not about making a serious attempt to reduce federal debt since the CBO scores the increased revenue at only 0.01% of the federal budget deficit. This is a populist appeal for some sort of social justice in tax policy which actually exacerbates our current economic problems.
What we should be focusing on is real tax reform which lowers tax rates overall and eliminates tax deductions which favor some individuals over others based on government whims. This is the recommendation of the President's blue ribbon deficit reduction committee, which was convened to great fanfare and then duly ignored.
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