Democrats Fixate on a Government Takeover of Health Care While Ignoring Mounting Job Losses
Just before the Independence Day holiday, the Labor Department announced that the nation’s unemployment rate rose to 9.5 percent—a 26-year high. Many independent experts now admit that unemployment will reach 10 percent in the near future. Yet for much of the past year, most Democrats have focused on spending trillions of dollars on a government takeover of health care—funded by tax increases on small businesses that will destroy jobs, not create them:
- November 12: Senate Finance Committee Chairman Baucus releases his “Call to Action” white paper on health reform—which proposes taxing businesses that cannot afford to provide coverage to their workers. The previous Friday, government statistics revealed the number of long-term unemployed had risen by 10 percent in the past month alone.
- February 26: The White House releases its budget outline with a $634 billion “reserve fund” for the uninsured. The reserve fund would receive most of its revenue from tax increases on individuals with incomes over $250,000—including small business owners. The following week, the Labor Department reported that the economy shed 651,000 jobs in February alone—and 2.6 million over the previous four months.
- April 29: House and Senate Democrats approve Obama budget, including a “reserve fund” that allows Democrats to raise taxes to fund a government takeover of health care. The move came in a month where private-sector employment fell by 611,000 jobs.
- May 12: Senate Finance Committee holds roundtable on financing health reform, where witnesses advocate raising taxes on small businesses to finance a government takeover of health care. The previous Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the total number of unemployed workers reached 13.7 million.
- June 7: Press reports indicate that a bill offered by Senate HELP Committee Chairman Ted Kennedy would raise taxes on businesses by as much as $300 billion to fund health “reform.” According to a model developed by Council of Economic Advisors Chair Christina Romer, such a proposal would destroy 4.7 million jobs. Two days earlier, the unemployment rate jumped half a percent to reach a 26-year high of 9.4 percent.
- June 19: The House Democrat leadership unveils legislation imposing an 8 percent tax on businesses that cannot afford to fund their workers’ health coverage. The Democrat proposal for a tax on jobs was released during a month when businesses shed an additional 467,000 jobs.
At a time when the American economy remains in the midst of a difficult recession, many Members may question Democrats’ apparent fixation with creating a new government-run health care system rather than stemming unemployment. Moreover, Members may also be concerned that the tax increases that constitute a central component of the Democrat agenda will only add to the record number of job losses sustained by the American economy.