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Sirota article debunking anti-tax arguments

Sun, 16 Aug 2009 08:09:32 GMT

clipped by: rpontikes

What You Should Say: Actually, they are paying almost exactly "their share." According to the data, the wealthiest 5 percent of America pays 38.5 percent of the total taxes precisely because they make just about that share — a whopping 36.5 percent! — of total national income. Asking these folks to pay slightly more in taxes — and still less than they did during the go-go 1990s — is hardly extreme.

Stripped of facts, your conversation partner will soon turn to unscientific terrain, claiming it is immoral to "steal" and "redistribute" income via taxes. Of course, he will be specifically railing on "stealing" for stuff like health care, which he insists gets "redistributed" only to the undeserving and the "lazy" (a classic codeword for "minorities"). But he will also say it's OK that government sent trillions of dollars to Wall Streeters.

And that's when you should stop wasting your breath.

Sirota article debunking anti-tax arguments

Sun, 16 Aug 2009 08:08:25 GMT

clipped by: rpontikes

Clip Source: www.truthout.org

What They Will Scream: We can't raise business taxes, because American businesses already pay excessively high taxes!

What You Should Say: Here's the smallest violin in the world playing for the businesses. The Government Accountability Office reports that most U.S. corporations pay zero federal income tax. Additionally, as even the Bush Treasury Department admitted, America's effective corporate tax rate is the third lowest in the industrialized world.

What They Will Scream: But the rich still "pay close to 60 percent of this nation's taxes!"

What You Should Say: Such statistics refer only to the federal income tax. When considering all of "this nation's taxes" including payroll, state and local levies, the top 5 percent pay just 38.5 percent of the taxes.

What They Will Scream: But 38.5 percent is disproportionately high! See? You've proved that the rich "contribute more than their share" of taxes!

From Obama information emails

Sun, 16 Aug 2009 07:13:46 GMT

clipped by: rpontikes

Clip Source: mail.google.com

Ends Gender Discrimination: Insurance companies will be prohibited from charging you more because of your gender.

Ends Annual or Lifetime Caps on Coverage: Insurance companies will be prevented from placing annual or lifetime caps on the coverage you receive.

Guarantees Insurance Renewal: Insurance companies will be required to renew any policy as long as the policyholder pays their premium in full. Insurance companies won't be allowed to refuse renewal because someone became sick.

Extends Coverage for Young Adults: Children would continue to be eligible for family coverage through the age of 26.

From Obama information emails

Sun, 16 Aug 2009 07:12:53 GMT

clipped by: rpontikes

Clip Source: mail.google.com

Ends Discrimination for Pre-Existing Conditions: Insurance companies will be prohibited from refusing you coverage because of your medical history.

Ends Exorbitant Out-of-Pocket Expenses, Deductibles or Co-Pays: Insurance companies will have to abide by yearly caps on how much they can charge for out-of-pocket expenses.

Ends Cost-Sharing for Preventive Care: Insurance companies must fully cover, without charge, regular checkups and tests that help you prevent illness, such as mammograms or eye and foot exams for diabetics.

Ends Dropping of Coverage for Seriously Ill: Insurance companies will be prohibited from dropping or watering down insurance coverage for those who become seriously ill.

Ends Gender Discrimination: Insurance companies will be prohibited from charging you more because of your gender.

Ends Annual or Lifetime Caps on Coverage: Insurance companies will be prevented from placing annual or lifetime caps on the coverage you receive.

Health insurance

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 06:32:33 GMT

clipped by: rpontikes

Clip Source: www.truthout.org

Among the darkest episodes was its opposition to free government-sponsored distribution of the Salk polio vaccine, which the AMA and its extremist allies regarded as yet another step toward socialism. That plan, too, was killed, depriving millions of children and adults of critical care during a national epidemic, in an act that amounted to a lobbying violation of the Hippocratic oath.

It was a stealth effort, known as Operation Coffee Cup, that relied on doctors' wives to spread a propaganda message, taped by Ronald Reagan, among their friends and neighbors. As always, the rhetoric was hot. National health insurance would destroy "the sacred relationship between doctor and patient," and even "the sanctity of human personality." Doctors would be "regimented and made subordinate to the bureaucrat, and the people forced by law to accept such medical care as could be provided by a politically appointed bureaucrat."

Health insurance

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 06:31:40 GMT

clipped by: rpontikes

Clip Source: www.truthout.org

Depression of the 1930s

progressive doctors sought to organize themselves into the first health cooperatives

so that they could provide care to working families under a group plan

the AMA

prohibited members from working for those early health maintenance organizations

the AMA dedicated millions of dollars to stopping universal health care in the United States, even as other developed nations were establishing a variety of successful systems that covered every citizen while holding down costs

When President Harry Truman proposed a national health plan in 1948, the AMA unleashed a Red-baiting fury

In the book "The Culture of the Cold War," Stephen J. Whitfield recalls how the AMA vowed to "resist the enslavement of the medical profession," warning that Truman was attempting to impose "a monstrosity of Bolshevik bureaucracy" on America

The same pamphlets smeared supporters of Truman's "compulsory health insurance" plan by connecting them to the Communist Party