The Thoughtful and Compassionate Conservative May 9, 2007

Why we need to make the 2003 Bush Tax Cuts permanent
Source: WSJ May 9, 2007 Opinion Section page A16: April Revenue Shower
The proof of the long term success of the tax cuts keeps coming in. Tax revenues for the first seven months are up 11.3%, or $153 billion, over last year. This could reduce the U.S. deficit this year to $150 billion, a mere 1% of GDP. Compare this to the 12 socialist high tax Eurozone countries of 2.4%.

Despite lower tax rates, tax revenue from individual income taxes are up 17.5%. Meanwhile, tax revenue from investment type income is up 30% in the face of the reduced capital gains rate of 15%. So what does the left liberal controlled democratic part want to do?-raise the capital gains tax 133% (see my blog dated May 7, 2007).

Someone please buy these people a complimentary copy of Sim City. The more you raise taxes, the lower the tax revenue because the victims leave town or divert their income streams elsewhere, or just plain stop investing.

The Medicare mystery
Source: WSJ May 9, 2007 Opinion Section page A16: How the GOP Won Health Care
You really needed patience to get through this article. I feel this subject is important enough for me (could be due to my age) to try to translate it into plain English. Here goes:

The GOP initiative "Medicare Advantage" has signed up 20% of the eligible senior population, or 8 million seniors, into private insurance options. The dems are livid. This flies in the face of their determination to have Hillarycare government controlled universal insurance ala France.

The strange thing is that this is a Republican welfare program for poor seniors. Medicare Advantage costs taxpayers 12% more than the government option. The extra money provides extra benefits and reduced copays not available in the government program. No surprise the present value unfunded liability of Medicaire is $70.5 trillion.

The Republicans have attracted strange bedfellows on this program. Among them the NAACP and the AARP. The NAACP seems to have a genuine humanitarian compassionate purpose to their support. On the other hand, the AARP expects to earn $4.4 billion over six years by providing these plans.

The dems strategy? Stall long enough until the unfunded problem becomes so bad that the American people can be duped into voting for universal government health care. What they won't tell the voters is that universal government health care will not be as good, cost more and come out of the pockets of the taxpayers big time. Getting on a long wait list like the Europeans have to do for certain surgeries won't be advertised by the dems as one of the consequences of their program. Why do they always push for programs that have never worked anywhere in the world? What am I missing?