rasmussen

Except that it wasn't. We had a surplus in 2000 and projected surpluses far into the future. Bush came in and implemented three tax cuts even as he started two wars. The thing is, the Trump tax cut which you praised was exactly the wrong move. You don't cut taxes in an expanding economy, that is the time to hold the line and let the tax base grow. By cutting taxes in 2017, Trump just expanded the deficit with no change in economic growth (see link below).

Do you think federal income tax is the only tax out there? When Romney said this in 2012, he also released his tax returns and I went through them. What percentage of his $15 million income do you think Romney paid in social security tax? (Most of us pay 7.625% on our own and our employers pay the same, so over 15% of earned income.) Romney paid zero dollars as he had no earned income. How about gas taxes, property taxes, utility taxes, etc? Romney paid those, but as a percentage they were less than 0.1%. The reality is that the richer you are, the lower your tax rate. Yes, the federal tax rate goes up, but every other tax rate goes down, there are a lot of those taxes and they fall hardest on the poor. Romney's overall tax rate, all in, federal, state, local was 15%, on par with what everyone else pays in just SS taxes. I computed my own, it was closer to 30%.
Actually, Trump has barely managed to stay even with the growth over the Obama years even with the tax cut/deficit spending. Here's a link. Despite his claims, we've never been over 3% under Trump. His best year was 2.9% in 2018, the same as 2015 under Obama. Obama had entire years over 2%, not sure why you think he didn't have a single quarter over that value. He also let one of the Bush tax cuts expire in 2015, reducing the deficit.

But that's the purpose, to reduce the number of insured so that the policies get so expensive to drive the poor out. Having uninsured people is the most stupid policy you can have so I'm not sure why anyone would favor it. Untreated sick people make more people sick and get sicker themselves requiring more expensive care. People who can't get basic care and result to emergency room care are turning to the very most expensive form of care and when they can't pay, the cost is passed on to the rest of us. We need everyone to have insurance.

you make several good points; I stand corrected on the GDP numbers....I think if tax rates are too high, you create a disincentive to work. I do believe federal government revenue collected from taxes has gone up every year under Trump, but I will concede otherwise if you fact check me. The problem is govt spending, not that marginal tax rates are too low

Point 2 you raise...yes, not all taxes are regressive; so you are just describing a mathematical consequence that the ratio of a flat tax divided by income drops as income rises...I still think everyone should pay federal taxes, so that everyone has skin in the game.

No, one of the problem with ACA is that it didn't spread the majority of cost of the people with pre-existing conditions across the entire population; it only spread the cost over the set of the individual market place - about 6% of the insured population. Thus in the first year of existence, individual insurance rates doubled and that wasn't near sufficient. There were many other problems with ACA which was why I was forced to pay $1200 per month for sh*t coverage......

I don’t pay medical costs.

Free health care is my right.

mark

I am sure it's not free. Financing has to come from segment of the population....you should tell us.

It’s still significantly less per capita than your country spends on healthcare.

Let that sink in for a minute, your country spends more per capita on public health than we do, and you still don’t have UHC.

I don't know which country you come from, (England?), But there are lots of differences between US and other countries. We have different form of government, supposedly basing our laws and rights from our Constitution....not telling you anything you don't know.......one of the most upsetting things about ACA to many people was the government seemingly exceeding it's authority by mandating it's citizens buy a product........as I recall, judge Roberts decreed it as a 'tax' and not a mandate and hence constitutional.....then, if I recall correctly, Trump eliminated the tax so eliminated the mandate....and yet again from . memory, I think there is now a suit going up the chain saying that since there is no mandate, the whole ACA is unconstutiknal

I am aware of your system of government.

For all its faults the NHS is the most efficient health service going. You spend more per capita of taxpayers money on healthcare than we do.

You have an extra layer of payment, insurance companies and you allow drug companies to set their own prices which includes advertising.

When I was on holiday in Mexico the Americans were all queuing up at the chemists to get their scripts filled and wondered why none of the other guests were bothering.

yes, that was my career for 40 years (health insurance actuary).......you neglect to mention competition however which drives best practice....but I'm not interested in debating national health insurance; I 'm retired from that world

Question on your NHS and I am sincerely just curious. I have spent millions on premature babies where the case is hopeless. I play bridge against a sickly 78 year old who had 200,000 heart claim (so he said). How are cases like this treated over there ?

Competition is an empty buzz word. The facts remain, not only do you pay more in healthcare people like you have to pay through the nose for treatment.

That’s what “competition” has given you. It looks like profiteering from over here.

They get treated. The ventilators don’t get turned off if they don’t have enough money.

I’m amazed you even need to ask such a question seeing as how you worked in the healthcare business.

There’s no such thing as a 2000 heart claim, when people have heart, or any other, surgery they don’t get billed for it.

There’s no claim to be made.

I think you misunderstand...I am not defending our system. It is what it is.........Most people get their insurance from the government or through their employer. Then you have the individual market and the uninsured - some by choice and some by not....

I am now on Medicare which is sort of like national health insurance for the people over 65 who contributed to the system, where there are choices between products, insurance companies, and networks....

There are some, like me, that don't believe our government can run things efficiently and in a cost effective manner; They don't have a good history of running businesses - AMTRAK, the Post Office System, to name a couple. Medicare is financially in huge trouble, to name a third

I have said this before but here we go again. Antibiotics are a prime example of why medicine should not be driven by market forces alone. There is no money to be made in developing a new antibiotic. If you’re successful your product will hardly ever be used, only as a last resort when all other approaches have failed. Compare that to a new cancer drug, if that’s successful it will be used a lot.

If malaria was a rich person’s disease it would have been cured decades ago.

What do you mean, not by choice?

The NHS is incredibly popular, you’d be hard find to find people who had their ‘choice’ taken away.

You’re getting all preachy about a system you’ve already admitted knowing nothing about.

Where’s your choice? You’re already paying more of your tax dollar than I am on healthcare, and on top of that you’ve got to pay for private healthcare.

Wow, great choice, I’m so ******* jealous.

The NHS is one of the most efficient healthcare systems in the World. Government agencies are very good at running things if they're given adequate funding.

Your Republican Party is committed to cutting public spending and forcing public money out to private tender and into the hands of shareholders instead of those who need it.

It’s not about some choice between one snake oil salesman or another. It’s about my rights, free health care is my right regardless of income. We view it the same way you view schools, you don’t worry about providers and cover for that do you?

Be careful, you are goring a sacred cow. When you even question anything English Izzy pukes up some kind of bullshit about it being the best thing ever.

It’s better than getting off on dead children.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/sallypipes/2019/04/01/britains-version-of-medicare-for-all-is-collapsing/#7fd1486136b8

not quite the bed of roses over there, apparently