White House: Detroit’s health care dump highlights ‘the benefits’ of Obamacare

Detroit’s reported plan to drop health care coverage for retirees and force them into Obamacare exchanges highlights “the benefits of the Affordable Care Act,” according to President Obama’s spokesman.

“One of the benefits of the Affordable Care Act is making sure that those Americans that don’t get health insurance through their employer are able go on the open market, though these [exchanges] and purchase insurance,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters. “That is something that didn’t exist before.” The New York Times reported on Detroit’s plan today. “Officials say the plan would be part of a broader effort to save Detroit tens of millions of dollars in health costs each year, a major element in a restructuring package that must be approved by a bankruptcy judge,” according to the report. “It is being watched closely by municipal leaders around the nation, many of whom complain of mounting, unsustainable prices for the health care promised to retired city workers,” the Times added. Earnest maintained, though, that he doesn’t know what the Obama team thinks of the proposal. “I have not heard a close analysis of this,” he said.

Via: Washington Examiner

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Virtually Unreported: Detroit's Bankruptcy Came With Sky-High Tax Rates, Not 'Small Government'

Just over a week ago, MSNBC's Melissa Harris Perry claimed that Detroit's bankruptcy is a result of "when government is small enough to drown in your bathtub," and analogized it to "exactly the kind of thing that many Republicans would impose on us."

The truth, of course, is that Detroit has had quite a large government. It also had and still has frightening rates of violent and nonviolent crime, incredibly awful schools, and a race-based culture that the press once praised. What is far less appreciated is what Detroit did to chase citizens and businesses out of the city in the form of sky-high taxes.

In 2012, Detroit's income tax was the highest in Michigan by far. Using the correct language of taxation, the city's 2.5% rate is 25% higher than 2% rate in the state's runner-up, Highland Park (0.5% divided by 2% is 25%), and is 2-1/2 times as high as most other cities which have a 1% rate.

At Townhall today, the Cato Institute's Chris Edwards went to an even less-known element of taxation: the property tax. The following graph illustrates how Detroit's property tax rates compare to the average of the 50 largest other cities in the U.S. (HT I Hate the Media):

In the liberal financial model, clearly the template used by the establishment press, people and businesses don't react to tax increases, other than to accept them, pay them, and go on with life and business as usual. The reality is that they don't.

Usually, they vote with their feet and leave. But in extreme cases like Detroit, they simply fail to pay them:

Nearly half of the owners of Detroit's 305,000 properties failed to pay their tax bills last year, exacerbating a punishing cycle of declining revenues and diminished services for a city in a financial crisis, according to a Detroit News analysis of government records.

... "Why pay taxes?" asked Fred Phillips, who owes more than $2,600 on his home on an east-side block where five owners paid 2011 taxes. "Why should I send them taxes when they aren't supplying services? It is sickening. ... Every time I see the tax bill come, I think about the times we called and nobody came."

Though there are surely many others in Detroit who feel the same way, there are more than likely quite a few who simply can't afford to pay what the city says they owe

Via: Newsbusters

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70 Straight Days: Treasury Says Debt Stuck at Exactly $16,699,396,000,000.00

(CNSNews.com) - According to the Daily Treasury Statement for July 26, which the Treasury released this afternoon, the federal debt has been stuck at exactly $16,699,396,000,000.00 for 70 straight days.

That is approximately $25 million below the legal limit of $16,699,421,095,673.60 that Congress has imposed on the debt.

The portion of the federal debt subject to the legal limit set by Congress first hit $16,699,396,000,000.00 at the close of business on May 17. At the close of every business day since then, it has also been $16,699,396,000,000.00, according to the official accounting published by the Treasury Department.

If the debt had increased by even $30 million at any time during those 70 days, it would have exceeded the statutory limit. But, according to the Treasury, the debt did not do that. Instead, it remained precisely $16,699,396,000,000.00.

Even though the government's official accounting of the debt has not budged for 70 days, the Treasury has continued to sell bills, notes and bonds at a value that exceeds the value of the bills, notes and bonds it was redeeming.

In fact, according to the Daily Treasury Statement for May 17, the Treasury had by then already redeemed approximately $4,776,995,000,000.00 since the beginning of the fiscal year (which started on Oct. 1, 2012). As of that same day, the Treasury had already sold $5,354,508,000.000.00 new bills, notes and bonds during the fiscal year. That represented a net increase in publicly circulating U.S. government debt instruments of $577,513,000,000.00 for the fiscal year.

Via: CNS News

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