That’s a bold move right? The first Presidential candidate to say we shouldn’t be the only advanced country in the world without a plan for health care for all our citizens? So guess what all the media headlines emphasize?
Health care plan would raise taxes LINK (Baltimore Sun)
Edwards puts tax hike in mix for health care;
Universal plan’s cost could hit $120 billion LINK (AP via Chicago Tribune)Edwards Becomes the First To Promise a Big Tax Hike LINK (NY Sun)
Edwards’ Health Care Plan Includes Taxes LINK (ABC)
Edwards’ Health Care Plan Includes Taxes LINK (CBS)
Edwards’ health care plan includes higher taxes LINK (MsNBC)
Surprised? Me neither. If it’s one thing the media knows how to do, its employ standard Republican talking points like: “Tax and Spend” Democrats are coming to take all your money and give it to poor black and brown people! I don’t know the full details of Edwards’ plan (it doesn’t appear at first glance to be a true single payer health care program) but the emphasis on the taxes required to pay for it, rather than the details of the plan itself, in these media reports is telling.
(cont.)
The trouble with these claims is that a single payer Universal Health Care plan, if done right would result in a net savings. Why? No more outrageous health care premiums for current health insurance plans which have to also cover the cost of treatment for the uninsured. No more large drug costs, because the single purchaser (the government) could negotiate lower drug prices like they do in other advanced countries. Less cost for the consumers patients and less cost for most businesses who have seen their employee benefit costs skyrocket because of health care cost increases. Only the health care insurers and Pharmaceutical manufacturers come out losers in this scenario. Well cry me a river over that tragic outcome.
Nonetheless, expect to see a lot more of the “The Democratic tax increases are coming! The Democratic tax increases are coming” alarm bells ringing in the media each and every time universal health care proposals, by Edwards or anyone else, gets mentioned.
Forget that Republicans and President Bush have turned the Federal Government into the largest and most corrupt patronage system in our history in which major corporations have received sweetheart deals to provide outsourced/privatized government services that cost us far more than they would have if we had simply let federal employees do the work, as Paul Krugman so rightly observed in his column today in the NY Times. The costs to American taxpayers over this GOP giveaway to its major corporate sugar daddies and wealthy campaign contributors has been far more destructive to the lifestyle of ordinary Americans than anything the Democrats have and will propose.
The media take on universal health care proposals will continue to be that you can’t trust Democrats with your tax monies. It’s a big lie and demonstrably false (see, for example Clinton administration budget surpluses), but no matter. Big media has a monopoly on the story lines that get force fed to the American people, and they ain’t gonna stop the stuffing of this old canard down our throats just because the facts don’t fit the narrative.
Meanwhile, how much are we being asked by Bush to spend in 2008 for the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan? Oh yes: 145 BILLION DOLLARS! Tax dollars for health care or for a futile, destructive war we cannot win? I know where I’d rather see my tax dollars going right now.
2008 Presidential Election Campaign
