by Leo Lemmer
Member since:
February 10, 2008

Tax the rich to pay for healthcare

July 30, 2009 10:51 AM UTC (Updated: July 30, 2009 10:53 AM UTC)
views: 0 | comments: 17

Irrefutably, the rich and super rich enormously benefited under Reagan, Bush, and Bush. During those administrations vast amounts of money went into the accounts of the super rich. The top one percent now owns 50% of all financial wealth in the U.S, including 65% of all financial securities!

True, the rich pay enormous taxes, but so do we all as a percentage of our incomes.

The absolute necessity of healthcare overhaul, including universal healthcare, will be unthinkably expensive. This country has helped the rich attain their wealth. It is time that they gave back to this country. At this time almost all of us are suffering financially. Logically a large portion of funding healthcare should come from the fantastically rich, who can afford it without sacrificing.

Comments: 17

*Carol ~Bronx Southern Belle Y. Jul 30, 2009, 11:00am UTC
"This country has helped the rich attain their wealth. It is time that they gave back to this country."
And when you take from them under Obama, they will still be rich, but they will not pay for housepainters, gardeners, and will stop buying and we the people were suffer more than ever before.
But we'll have our government controlled health care, and wait on long lines for our pathethic health care.
Vote Republican before it's too late!
Larry M. Jul 30, 2009, 11:08am UTC
Carol,

The rich are not going to stop getting personal services just because they pay more in taxes. They will consume just as much as before. They won't stop buying things for themselves.

Please see "Taxes and GDP / Employment" http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474977750369

my most recent post, for the statistics and references.
Rita B. Jul 30, 2009, 11:16am UTC
Larry you are so right. My spouse works doing exactly what you said personal services. Their status is very important to them so this will be one of the last services they give up. They pay premium prices to look right and most live on golf courses. Many hire cheap labor many girls on knees picking weeds in a long line across the property never leaving a weed to be seen.
Renee K. Jul 30, 2009, 11:05am UTC
Carol has a point - lots of people would rather eat the crumbs from a rich man's table than have a table of their own (no matter how humble)!
Rita B. Jul 30, 2009, 11:10am UTC
Why vote Republican it didn't help anybody. I have seen too much suffering among the working class, even those insured for health care are refused certain medical help. There was a man recently who was refused cancer treatments through his health care and died because of it. We desperately need single payer health care for the people who work the hardest at jobs that are dangerous and chain gang type work. I have watched field workers lose limbs from machine work in the fields with no health insurance. In sweltering heat field workers bend for eight hours cleaning a man's field of rocks before planting crops and the wages are horrible, also horrible living conditions.
Kris M. Jul 30, 2009, 12:28pm UTC
If you think the rich are going to cut back on their luxuries and personal services, you've never met anyone who's rich.
They didn't do too poorly under Bill Clinton either.

I am amazed at people who have so much money they couldn't spend it in twenty lifetimes. Who are they saving it for? Carnegie made a couple of fortunes and left a legacy of public libraries with much of it. That's a cool way to be rich.
Kris M. Jul 30, 2009, 8:38pm UTC
There used to be more civic-minded rich people, like Carnegie and Hershey and, now, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, who are interested in the public good. There are thousands more, however, like the Jed Clampett character one street over from me, who have to be taxed in order to give anything back. They're certainly not going to do it on their own.
Lori F. Jul 30, 2009, 8:40pm UTC
At a fundraiser Warren Buffet made a speech. In this speech he said that he paid less tax on his income than his cleaning lady did. She paid 30% of her income of $60,000 to taxes.

He paid 17%.

Its not about taxing the rich its about paying your fair share.
Lori F. Jul 30, 2009, 9:07pm UTC
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/26/AR2007062602504.html

There's your link. It was a Hillary Clinton fund raiser.
Lori F. Jul 30, 2009, 9:08pm UTC
I was wrong it was his secretary.

And 25% tax whatever that is my tax bracket and I pay more than that in taxes.

Spin on Linda.
Chris Brockman Jul 30, 2009, 9:07pm UTC
A single-payer system would obviate all the fuss over who would pay by saving more money by far than it would cost to provide health care for all. And, the CEOs of the big insurance companies would suddenly be in a lower tax bracket!
Lori F. Jul 30, 2009, 9:25pm UTC
The CEO's in a lower tax bracket...interesting concept.
Yevgeni Stepanov Jun 20, 2011, 12:44pm UTC
A single payer system would ensure poor healthcare for all.
X Z. Aug 1, 2009, 2:20am UTC
I went to high school at a ghetto, inner-city public school. We had a 25% drop out rate, plenty of teen pregnancies, and about 60% of students were on free or reduced lunch. But I just finished my first year at a small liberal arts college in Pennsylvania and I could not believe how rich some of those kids are. Having grown up with money problems, and being surrounded by people worse off than myself, I just have absolutely no sympathy for the very wealthy people who get upset about taxes. They can already buy just about anything they want anyway, taxes or not. I couldn't spend all that money if I tried. So I am very much in favor of taxing the extremely wealthy because there are a million causes that that money could go to where so much good could be done.
Doc Windishmere Aug 1, 2009, 8:00pm UTC
Obama is a worthless piece of shit. he is so stupid that he thinks he is going to pay for healthcare by cutting medicare expence. Now our piece of shit presbo will take my healthcare to render it to an illegal!
Yevgeni Stepanov Jun 20, 2011, 12:43pm UTC
When you take the work of someone and compel them to involuntarily support someone else, you have to some degree enslaved them.

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