Tuesday, July 24, 2007

94 East

Finally, a state has heeded the words of visionaries like Hillary Clinton and Michael Moore and taken the bold step forward to make government provided health care a reality. An editorial in today's Wall Street Journal (free for all) reports that Wisconsin--a state long-noted for pioneering health care trends--is going to ante up and care for its citizens from cradle to grave as any good government should:

Democrats who run the Wisconsin Senate have dropped the Washington pretense of incremental health-care reform and moved directly to passing a plan to insure every resident under the age of 65 in the state. And, wow, is "free" health care expensive. The plan would cost an estimated $15.2 billion, or $3 billion more than the state currently collects in all income, sales and corporate income taxes. It represents an average of $510 a month in higher taxes for every Wisconsin worker.

Employees and businesses would pay for the plan by sharing the cost of a new 14.5% employment tax on wages. Wisconsin businesses would have to compete with out-of-state businesses and foreign rivals while shouldering a 29.8% combined federal-state payroll tax, nearly double the 15.3% payroll tax paid by non-Wisconsin firms for Social Security and Medicare combined.


I for one applaud Wisconsin's leaders for acting to solve the state's health care crisis. Especially since I live in Minnesota:

As if that's not enough, the health plan includes a tax escalator clause allowing an additional 1.5 percentage point payroll tax to finance higher outlays in the future. This could bring the payroll tax to 16%. One reason to expect costs to soar is that the state may become a mecca for the unemployed, uninsured and sick from all over North America. The legislation doesn't require that you have a job in Wisconsin to qualify, merely that you live in the state for at least 12 months. Cheesehead nation could expect to attract health-care free-riders while losing productive workers who leave for less-taxing climes.

We send you our unemployed sickos and you send us jobs, entrepreneurs, and high-achievers? Sound like a win-win deal. On Wisconsin!

UPDATE: King's on board with this new plan--which I like to call "Escape From Wisconsin" in honor of those old tourism bumper stickers--to boost economic growth in Minnesota as well.

1 comment:

  1. نقدم لك حل طبيعي وسهل للتخلص من البقع والحل هو استخدام الخل والصودا للتخلص من كافة انواع البقع حيث يمكن التخلص من بقع الدهون وبقع الزيت سواء كانت على الجدران والحوائط أو كانت على الأرضيات والأسطح باستخدام محلول الصودا والخل الذي يفتت البقع ناهيك عن كونه يعتبر معقم قوي وفعال لقتل البكتريا وبالأخص عند إضافة سائل التنظيف معه، فللتخلص من البقع
    شركة تنظيف بالدمام
    ويجيب على تساؤلات عملائنا الكرام خبراء على أعلى مستوى حيث يقوم خبراء شركة تنظيف منازل بالدمام والمتخصصون في مجال التنظيف والصحة العامة على تقديم إجابات وافية على استفسارات عملائنا وتقديم حلول للشكاوى المقدمة وسط الحرص على استخدام أحدث التقنيات وبالاعتماد على مواد طبيعية تحافظ على صحة الإنسان ولا تكون عبء على ميزانية المنزل.

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