What it is, dudes:I don't like the White House push for the Senate health care bill's funding mechanism: taxing those "rich" folks with "Cadillac" plans.
It is absolutely clear that Obama is working according to the following premise:
a) Thou shall not disturb the top 2% of this nation*.
b) If you want to implement a plan, like health care, then you look to get money from within the other 98%.
Some (e.g. Booman, Ezra) argue that within the 98%, the Senate plan is progressive.
And it is! But that's only because the top 2% are out of consideration. So Obama looks to fund health care from the “wealthy” mid-to-upper middle-class.
Republicans are no better, but I'm very unhappy to see Obama accept this two-tiered socioeconomic system.
* - an approximation for households making a million or more per year.
posted by Quiddity at 1/15/2010 05:20:00 AM
The Obama administration does not threaten those who are already wealthy. It does not threaten assets, only income. Thus, it really threatens those who aspire to become wealthy, but telling them that no matter how much they make, the government will take away more and more, so that they never actually become wealthy, only more comprehensively milked.
That's the structural basis of progressivism. The real sales job has been in convincing the "have-nots" that they benefit from being systematically kept from becoming wealthy.
