This week, President Obama raised my taxes for healthcare, and I’m just fine with it.
A small increase in taxes won’t change my lifestyle. It won’t stop me from hiring any new employees. It won’t change my family’s plans for our vacation or buying a new car. It won’t do all of the negative things that the Insurance Companies and their acolytes in Congress have been threatening, just as it won’t do all the great things that President Obama and the Democratic leadership are championing. But it is the right start for a new direction.
Throughout Sunday, as my son Joshua (who works on Capitol Hill for Rep. Bob Filner) was texting me with regular updates about the behind the scenes maneuvering in the Halls of Congress, my thoughts could not help but go back to my sister Linda.
I loved my sister. She was 10 years older than me and despite having faced great obstacles in her life, she had a great outlook and she was loved by everyone who met her. Linda died almost 20 years ago because she had to wait too long for what could have been a simple surgery – but her lack of health insurance and her pride in not coming to our family sooner to help her pay her medical bills delayed the surgery. And what should have been simple became complicated – and it caused a catastrophic incident from which she never recovered.
As I watched the debate over the past six months, I grew angry at my Democratic brethren because, as a campaign professional, all I ever heard them talk about were the features of the legislation – but rarely did they speak about the benefits.
Within the next few weeks, insurance protection that was closed to millions of Americans will be open. Never again will an overweight woman who earned too much to qualify for Medi-Cal, but too little to afford her own insurance, working for a company that did not provide medical insurance, have to choose between food for her children or insurance protection.
For a family with $250,000 income, the weekly tax increase will be less than $20, probably less than their weekly tab at Starbucks.
Also…for those state Attorneys General suing the government? Fine…let’s put a provision in the law that those states that don’t want to abide by the law no longer receive federal funds for local healthcare. We can use the money here in CA and the other states putting people’s lives above partisan politics. (President Reagan did something similar when the legal age for drinking was raised to 21).
I am old enough to remember the fight against Medicare and the cries of “socialized medicine” that emanated from many of the same groups that opposed the healthcare legislation. They were wrong about the change in healthcare laws then and they are wrong now.