Brad
2010-11-19 15:56:17 UTC
Does anybody remember the hysteria of the left when Sarah Palin correctly pointed out that Obamacare would eventually lead to death panels? Last Sunday, Paul Krugman appeared on "This Week" and actually advocated the creation of death panels, using that very word:
"Some years down the pike, we're going to get the real solution, which is going to be a combination of death panels and sales taxes. It's going to be that we're actually going to take Medicare under control, and we're going to have to get some additional revenue, probably from a VAT. But it's not going to happen now."
After accidentally revealing what the "Progressives" are up to, Krugman went into damage control on his blog, saying that he was just saying that Medicare should refuse to pay for some procedures to "save money."
In Krugman's defense, death panels are inevitable with socialized medicine. The government cannot afford to pay for everybody's health care, because "free" health care drives up the demand and drives down the supply of that service. Thus, the government must inevitably refuse to pay for services that people need, that is the government must create "death panels" to "save money." In the long run, the government cannot afford to pay even its current obligations. The government will have to default on Social Security and Medicare for the Baby Boomers. There is no way that the government can afford to provide "free" health care.
Krugman, however, is wrong about a sales tax being a means to raise additional revenue. This country is already taxed at the limit. Any further tax increases will only reduce the amount of wealth in the economy, which will lead to a decrease in tax revenue. If Krugman and others on the left were to have their way and to either institute a VAT sales tax (which would greatly increase the price of every good in the economy, as it is a sales tax that is paid during each stage of production) or a heavy tax increase for the "wealthy" (that is, for the people who save and invest and therefore create wealth; due to the current exorbitant rates of taxation and inflation, nobody other than the wealthy can afford to save much money these days), that would be a disaster for the economy. Any further tax increases on the Middle Class would only destroy the Middle Class in this country. Of course, Krugman doesn't have any problem with raising taxes on the wealth creators, since he believes that consumption creates wealth, rather than savings and investment (this is, of course, an absurdity, as somebody must save and invest to create the products that are to be consumed).
If the government is going to be responsible for paying medical costs, the government is going to be forced to eventually enact death panels. The government, contrary to what Krugman may think, cannot increase taxes without causing so much harm to the economy that revenues actually decline. Everybody who is against the idea of death panels needs to also be against government involvement in medicine. If you support government health care, then you also support the consequences of the government monopolizing health care (death panels).