Obama is about to give away the farm...again. Ezra Klein reports Obama is negotiating a 37% tax rate for the upper earners and a raise in the Medicare eligibility age. I had hoped Obama would give us a reason for voting for him but no. He's going to screw us before the inauguration.
Krugman: "Second, why on earth would Obama be selling Medicare away to raise top tax rates when he gets a big rate rise on January 1 just by doing nothing? And no, vague promises about closing loopholes won't do it: a rate rise is the real deal, no questions, and should not be traded away for who knows what. So this looks crazy to me; it looks like a deal that makes no sense either substantively or in terms of the actual bargaining strength of the parties. And if it does happen, the disillusionment on the Democratic side would be huge. All that effort to reelect Obama, and the first thing he does is give away two years of Medicare? How's that going to play in future attempts to get out the vote?" http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/07/i-hope-this-isnt-true/ David Dayen, Firedoglake: "The one thing we know will be a side effect of increasing the Medicare eligibility age is that insurance premiums will skyrocket. It will make Medicare more expensive because they lose relatively healthy 65 and 66 year-olds from their risk pool, and it will make private insurance more expensive because they add relatively sick 65 and 66 year-olds to their risk pool. Insurers hate the idea for just this reason. As a result, everyone's premiums will rise, and cost-shifting will ensue from the government to its citizens. People with busy lives don't differentiate between what provisions in health care can be attributed to the Affordable Care Act and what provisions come from a fiscal deal. They'll just know that the ACA got implemented in 2014, and as a result their insurance rates jumped." Let the Republicans go over the fiscal cliff. On January 1 lower the tax rate on the working class and then make the Tea Party look like idiots if they argue against lower taxes. We don't need to touch Medicare. Just raise the cap on Social Security.
