Wednesday, September 30, 2009

We all know how badly that turned out...

Baucus: Health Care Bill Can Grow Over Time, Just Like Social Security:

Now, if I were trying to make the argument that Baucus's health care bill will lead to far more government intrusion than he is currently letting on, I don't think I could come up with a better example than Social Security. When originally created, Social Security was supposed to be a modest safety net, it was supposed to have a trust fund that kept the program solvent, and the payroll tax was just 1 percent each on employees and employers, or 2 percent total. But it evolved into key source of income for seniors whose life expectancy has swelled by 15 years since legislation was enacted, the illusionary trust fund has been raided to finance other government programs, and the payroll tax has been raised 20 times, bringing it to 6.2 percent each for employee and employer, or 12.4 percent total. The program is now insolvent, and along with those other government behomeoths that grew beyond their original intentions -- Medicare and Medicaid -- Social Security is bankrupting our country. Yet it remains politically untouchable.