Congressman Sam Johnson in Plano--is he yours?? (health, compared)

[Johnhw2]

Originally Posted by Cheesesteak Cravings

If you want to raise the retirement age you should start with yourself first.

Mine has been raised not enough of course as the fed gov ' math skills are poor.

[octo]

Originally Posted by EDS_

Well at least Johnson is talking about SS and its guaranteed failure if left as is.

How about increasing SS "tax" for people who can afford it instead of tampering with SS payments and age?

Increased life expectancy doesn't mean that people should be forced to work longer because this increase doesn't mean that people will be mentally and physically fit.

Before you wish for diminished SS, look at countries that have worse SS or at history. It's not pretty.

[EDS_]

Originally Posted by loves2read

Killing a mandatory public option killed the ACA's true effectiveness
Not that any critic will admit that
Obama took what he could get since that was what he promised along with stopping the free fall in the economy and stock market...

I think all Republicans and most Democrats have forgotten the panic that many people and businesses were going through in 08-09...
Although huge percentage of Trump voters believe the market has gone down in his 8 yrs and employment has not improved...they are frankly in a different universe...

Given the metrics Obama has seen over the bulk of his tenure the economy should be white hot - short rates near zero, liquidity everywhere, low energy prices, massive capital inflows and a near doubling of the debt. Instead the economy is no better than OK and Obama has ceded incalculable amounts of American clout into the ether versus North Korea, China, Russia and he's made the ME worse not better. Race relations on the mainland haven't been worse since the '60s......I could go on but won't.

And with respect I remember you - and I mean you - talking about structural unemployment in Texas that would likely never improve. You'll hedge but you know I've got it right.

It'll be interesting to see if you give Trump the largess you've offered Obama vis-a-vis Obamacare. No president ever gets precisely what they want.......not Washington, Honest Abe, Kennedy or Reagan.

And at the end of the day how can any decent American utter the words, "mandatory public option" and not throw up at least a little?

[EDS_]

Originally Posted by octo

How about increasing SS "tax" for people who can afford it instead of tampering with SS payments and age?

Increased life expectancy doesn't mean that people should be forced to work longer because this increase doesn't mean that people will be mentally and physically fit.

Before you wish for diminished SS, look at countries that have worse SS or at history. It's not pretty.

The thinking from those on the left is always the same.......punish those who have done well. And that works great for a while until it does not work at all as we are seeing currently in Spain, Italy, France and increasingly in the nordic counties. The hard truth is an economy can only sustain so much .gov spending on social welfare programs before widespread economic underperformance sets in.

[Cheesesteak Cravings]

Originally Posted by EDS_

The thinking from those on the left is always the same.......punish those who have done well. And that works great for a while until it does not work at all as we are seeing currently in Spain, Italy, France and increasingly in the nordic counties. The hard truth is an economy can only sustain so much .gov spending on social welfare programs before widespread economic underperformance sets in.

Instead punish those that don't do well? The cap is set at about 118k. You actually are effectively taxing the do-well's that make over that, less. But the dollar also continues to be worth less. I don't begrudge any senior their retirement check because of the money that comes out of my check.

Well, maybe I do when they support raising the retirement age, and lowering benefits of younger people.

[serger]

Originally Posted by EDS_

Given the metrics Obama has seen over the bulk of his tenure the economy should be white hot - short rates near zero, liquidity everywhere, low energy prices, massive capital inflows and a near doubling of the debt. Instead the economy is no better than OK and Obama has ceded incalculable amounts of American clout into the ether versus North Korea, China, Russia and he's made the ME worse not better. Race relations on the mainland haven't been worse since the '60s......I could go on but won't.

And with respect I remember you - and I mean you - talking about structural unemployment in Texas that would likely never improve. You'll hedge but you know I've got it right.

It'll be interesting to see if you give Trump the largess you've offered Obama vis-a-vis Obamacare. No president ever gets precisely what they want.......not Washington, Honest Abe, Kennedy or Reagan.

And at the end of the day how can any decent American utter the words, "mandatory public option" and not throw up at least a little?

Not sure what you mean by "mandatory" but the purpose of this was competition. Currently, private insurance companies are severely inefficient compared to medicare. The overhead is probably an order of magnitude higher (yes, the CEO salary, etc. needs to come from somewhere). And, I'm not saying that the government is always efficient - F-35, for instance, is a perfect local example of unreasonable and useless spending.

[EDS_]

Originally Posted by Cheesesteak Cravings

Instead punish those that don't do well? The cap is set at about 118k. You actually are effectively taxing the do-well's that make over that, less. But the dollar also continues to be worth less. I don't begrudge any senior their retirement check because of the money that comes out of my check.

Well, maybe I do when they support raising the retirement age, and lowering benefits of younger people.

That's a pretty tough sell when high income earners pay a grossly disproportionate percentage of federal income taxes. I haven't worked the numbers in years but I'd bet it still holds that if we examine ncome quintiles and each cadre's SS taxes + federal income taxes the top cadre pays about 90/91% of the total. That's enough.

[EDS_]

Originally Posted by serger

Not sure what you mean by "mandatory" but the purpose of this was competition. Currently, private insurance companies are severely inefficient compared to medicare. The overhead is probably an order of magnitude higher (yes, the CEO salary, etc. needs to come from somewhere). And, I'm not saying that the government is always efficient - F-35, for instance, is a perfect local example of unreasonable and useless spending.

We've been over this before and nothing has changed. Your claim above about medicare efficency versus private insurance is totally incorrect. Just saying something over and over does not make it true.

[serger]

Originally Posted by EDS_

The thinking from those on the left is always the same.......punish those who have done well. And that works great for a while until it does not work at all as we are seeing currently in Spain, Italy, France and increasingly in the nordic counties. The hard truth is an economy can only sustain so much .gov spending on social welfare programs before widespread economic underperformance sets in.

Well, about the welfare, who pays when an uninsured with no money person goes to the emergency room and spends $5000 on overpriced service (random number) for something that would cost $200 (also too much, actually), at the primary care physician office if they had one.

And speaking of welfare, and I mean the worst kind - why do I pay for companies to move to Plano, clog my commute, and increase my taxes. This is welfare I do not remember approving.

[serger]

Originally Posted by EDS_

We've been over this before and nothing has changed. Your claim above about medicare efficency versus private insurance is totally incorrect. Just saying something over and over does not make it true.

It is like 2-3% which is basically zero compared to private insurance.