Showing posts with label big government. Show all posts
Showing posts with label big government. Show all posts

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Germany to increase health insurance premiums?

Now that we're on the path to government run insurance, stories are coming out about how its not working in other governments.
Let's talk about Germany, where they are raising taxes and cutting drug benifits to balance their health care program:
The measure is part of an overhaul of health care intended to plug an 11-billion euro ($13.8 billion) deficit in the public health-insurance system in 2011. It follows Cabinet agreement on June 29 to cuts in spending on drugs to reduce soaring costs to public health-insurance funds.

Neat.
Keep in mind, Germany was supposed to be one of the places where government run health care 'works'.

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Government payrolls are up

Paychecks from private business shrank to their smallest share of personal income in U.S. history during the first quarter of this year, a USA TODAY analysis of government data finds.

At the same time, government-provided benefits — from Social Security, unemployment insurance, food stamps and other programs — rose to a record high during the first three months of 2010.

There is no surer way to bankrupt a country then by spending more money on government benefits while personal income declines. Or, as an economist in the article points out:

The trend is not sustainable, says University of Michigan economist Donald Grimes. Reason: The federal government depends on private wages to generate income taxes to pay for its ever-more-expensive programs. Government-generated income is taxed at lower rates or not at all, he says. "This is really important," Grimes says.

Grimes is completely correct. As private income goes down, there is less money to fuel government programs. As government programs increase, it becomes harder to get rid of them. Once government programs swallow up more of the GDP, it simply becomes unsustainable.