I can. Because that “debunking” is a complete piece of shit.
Here’s a tip for the retarded author of that piece. If you fault someone for using anecdotal data, you can’t turn around and rebut something with an anecdote.
You shouldn’t formulate rebuttals like this" “I don’t have time to go into [impressively relevant sounding topic area] here, but…” If you have a case to make, make it. Don’t allude to the possibility that some domain of knowledge might contain a more impressive rebuttal than you are capable of making.
Finally, the “that isn’t the reason becuase there are many reasons and factors” argument is just weaseling.
This guy does not at all sound like he has the first inkling of how to address these arguments. He sounds more like a partisan tasked with the job of googling stuff to try to rebut Krugman. The good thing is that they probably know they don’t actually have to come up with a rebuttal; their readers will be just fine if they call it a rebuttal.
Fortunately, I’ve got that angle covered. My plan doesprovide benefits for treatment of extraterrestrial sexually transmitted diseases contracted during an alien abduction, which makes it completely different from yours.
More fundamentally, it’s off point, since it’s an old piece attacking Krugman on the broader issue without addressing the point currently on the table (Bush’s new tax on health insurance).
That would seem to imply that the administration designed this plan to be sold as a tax that would hit only “the rich”, knowing full well that it would automatically expand its tentacles down into the wallets of the middle class. My analogy to the history of the income tax is more spot-on than I realized…
This may be the wrong place to ask, but what exactly is covered under the rubric of “health insurance” under this plan? At my workplace health, dental, vision and perscription drug benefits are all seperate plans that you can choose from. Are all of these combined subject to the 7.5/15k tax-free cap?
Before you all come to blows over Krugman please do the reality check. This has no chance of passing, probably won’t even get proposed in Congress, and Bush proposing it now, as a lame duck with a Congress nearly united against him and no popular support, will only have the effect of killing off future and better efforts to move healthcare insurance more equitably out of the employer-provided model.
Except that there will be pressure to increase the deduction once the average cost is > than $15K.
The plan, if I understand it, would be great for middle class people with crappy health care plans, in the sense that their taxes would go down. It woulldn’t help those paying little in tax at all.
Do companies get to deduct the cost of providing insurance today? If they do, I assume that would disappear, and company taxes would go up.
Wouldn’t it be easier - and cheaper - to just make privately paid premiums deductible? I can see the fairness argument, but not any of the others.
Are you sure? If you are self-employed, your premium can be deducted. Likewise, it can be deducted if it exceeds 7.5% of your income. Other than that, I’m pretty sure if you buy your own health insurance premium it must be paid for with after-tax dollars.
You’re confusing 2 things. If you pay for your own health insurance, you can deduct 100% of the premiums. If your medical expenses exceed 7.5%, then you can write them off as well.
No, the article I read said that you can only deduct your premiums if they exceed 7.5% (meeting the medical expenses threshold). I’m very curious about being able to deduct premiums if you are not self-employed. Do you have any cites on this? I did a google search but found nothing.
I’m not sure what you’re talking about. If someone else (like an employer) is paying your premiums then no, you can’t deduct them. Is that what you’re asking?
That we get. The question is whether an individual - say unemployed - can deduct premiums amounting to under 7.5% of salary. If the individual has a business, and employs himself, I assume it can be deducted from the taxable income of the business, which in many cases will accomplish the same thing.
If private premiums are deductible now, what the hell will the Bush plan accomplish? Everyone would have all the incentives already.
Ah, Steve MB. That was beautiful. Care to expand on it a little?
No, I have no use for a system that favors those who know how to game any system they see.
Yes, I can and have gamed whatever life has thrown at me. I do not confuse that ability with the idea that it somehow means that this equates with the greatest good for the greatest number, and I certainly don’t confuse it with the idea that whatever system I’ve gamed is somehow pure from the POV of liberty or justice, to use the two loaded words that the right and the left like to throw around.
The current system is a subsidy to a single class of people: high-salaried corporate employees. It subsidizes these people at the expense of everyone else, in the same way that the mortgage interest deduction subsidizes high-income homeowners at the expense of everyone else.
I am, deliberately, a member of both classes. I don’t, because I know better, confuse this with any notion of either greater liberty or greater justice. I would rather live in a world where people buy houses because they can genuinely afford to, rather than because they get a nice, fat subsidy for doing so, and where an entrepreneur risking his own capital is not disadvantaged relative to some useless cubicle-dweller because of the idiotic way health care is set up in this country.
Sorry if that causes you to make idiotic drive-by posts. Perhaps you should have a spot of tea before you post drivel.
Well, the answer to that is definitely yes. I do it myself. The Bush plan would mean a bigger tax cut for me, read my OP for details. Again, that’s just my personal situation.
No, what I’m saying is that it is my understanding that if you are self-employed, you can deduct the full cost of your premiums. If you are not self-employed, but buy your own insurance, you must do so with after-tax dollars (unless the cost of the premiums hits the 7.5% limit.
If this is not correct, could you direct me to more information on it? Thanks.
Here is a link that seems to include premiums with medical expenses, which can only be deducted if over 7.5%. See table 4.4.
When I retire I’m going to start working for my wife - quite legitimately - in order that we can deduct the premiums that we’re going to have to start paying.
I can believe that it will cut your taxes, since it will move the deduction from your business to your personal tax, and increase it. It will cut my taxes also, since I’m not getting $15K worth of medical insurance premiums.
But the crisis isn’t about us, it’s about those who don’t pay much taxes and thus won’t get the benefit.