handful of commanders-in-chief

i read this interesting although highly skewed op-ed piece in the WSJ today about congress wanting to thwart the presidents efforts to send more troops to iraq. constitutionally, the president has the power not the congress to decide this matter. but the author of the 0p-ed was terribly mis-leading in stating that various senators who are backing a non-binding resolution to halt any further troop surges originally voted in favor of the war and are now backing out because it can't be won. well yes, many of those in congress and the general public supported and backed the effort to invade iraq BECAUSE the nation was lied to and we all thought there were WMD's in iraq. obviously that was not the case and now that these senators and reps. know they were lied to they want to stop any further spending of american dollars and lives!

bush's health care proposal -- it's a start

on tuesday during the state of the union address the president briefly outlined his proposal for better health care. taxing benefits employee's receive from their employers. BRILLIANT. he is proposing a new tax. generally i'm opposed to new taxes but this one is a tax my wife and i are already paying so why not let the rest of the country join us? this tax he speaks of works exactly like the domestic partner benefits tax. the employee pays tax on whatever portion of their health care benefits the employer pays for. not a bad idea if you ask me because in all fairness if we, those with domestic partner benefits, get taxed shouldn't everyone? sadly, this may be easier to pass than overturning the tax laws as they pertain to dom. partner benes.

in addition to this new tax the president proposed a tax credit of $15k for families and $7,500 for singles. now i wonder if this would apply to all those who have domestic partner benefits??

this is a start despite there being a tax involved. this may not be the best start though, because honestly, if you can't afford health care benefits now how will you be able to with a tax credit next year? you'd have to wait until you got that tax credit. it sounds like a good system only in that, from my selfish viewpoint, it makes us all a little more equal.

to really make something like this work congress should de-regulate the insurance industry and not leave it up to the states to do so. i believe it is pennsylvania who has done this and health insurance is far more affordable there than it is in new york or massachusetts who have highly regulated industries.

equal protection claims

taxes are part of american life. so is liberty as far as our constitution is concerned. but what about that once oft used tool to preserve rights -- the equal protection claim?

would not the discrepancy in taxing of health care benefits and domestic partner health care benefits fit nicely into an equal protection claim?

discuss...

Health Care Tax

i was reading today that it costs the U.S. government about $900-billion (between 2006-10) by NOT taxing employer-provided health insurance benefits on employee's tax returns. that is of course if they aren't domestic partner benefits.

in all fairness, which domestic partner benefits are not, i am open to taxing health benefits for everyone. $900-billion over 4 years is...over $200 BILLION a year! roll that into federally funded health insurance programs like medicaid and medicare and we are on to something.

thanks to loosened restrictions on what states can do with federal funds from low-income health insurance programs states like massachusetts and california have been able to come up with "universal health-care" coverage. neither state's program has been around long enough to gage whether it works, but at least it is a step in the right direction.

twice as much fun

i'm going to start posting to both my livejournal and a blog because, i can.

this month i got health benefits through my wife but since our marriage is only legal in massachusetts it turns out these are domestic partner benefits. okay, i've tried this dom. part. bene's before when i lived in maryland and was making about $11/hour and i got royally screwed so i rasied hell and had them immediately cancelled. i only did it at the time because we thought it would be nice. i told my partner at the time to go back to her old insurance at her company. for anyone unfamiliar with domestic partner benefits let me outline it for you.

let's say you get paid $10/hour and make $400 a week.
you pay $15 pre-taxed for a single person to have insurnance
you also pay $30 more which is taxed to make up the difference between single and family insurance.
the company pays $200 a week for insurance benefits for your "family" plan.
our brilliant government decided this was a good idea....
your pay of $400/week is reported and taxed at the rate of $600 ($400+200 insurnance).
so a person who makes $21k a year is getting taxed at the rate of someone who is making over $31k.
for some this would push them into a different tax bracket, as was the case when i worked in maryland.
THANKFULLY, my wife makes significant money and i don't think the extra $10k a year will push her into the next tax bracket. i'm looking into it. BUT there is still a 2% increase in the amount of tax that is taxen each week. in time 2% adds up. when i was in maryland making $11/h i had nearly 75% of my paycheck deducted. you can't live on that.
sadly this is something that only congress can change. the states have no power to change the irs codes even if the state chooses to recognize my equal marriage.

there have bee two congress-folk who have drafted legislation to change this but the bill has stalled.

somehow this is reminicent of separate but equal. and we saw how well that worked!