Meanwhile, Dick Morris—whose recent activism on health care constitutes full penance for any damage he did as Bill Clinton's chief political consultant in the 1990s—draws attention to another unexamined aspect of Obamacare. Its massive expansion of state-run Medicaid programs will end up costing state governments billions of dollars, forcing them to raise their taxes.
This is part of the pervasive dishonesty of the current bill, which is full of tricks meant to hide its true costs by shifting expenses off of the federal government's books and onto private individuals, businesses, and state governments.
"Health Care Raises Taxes," Dick Morris, The Hill via DickMorris.com, December 1
The Obama healthcare initiative will be the biggest unfunded federal mandate on the states in history. It will force dozens of states, particularly in the South, to abandon their low-tax ways and to move toward dramatically higher rates of taxation. It may even force Florida and Texas to impose an income tax!
In the Senate version of the bill, states must expand their Medicaid eligibility to cover everyone with an income that is 133 percent of the poverty level.
The House bill brings it up to 150 percent. But a host of states have kept their state taxes low precisely by so limiting eligibility for Medicaid that it essentially is only for seniors needing long-term care and not for poor younger people who require acute care….
The revenue required to bring these states up to the 133 percent level in the Senate bill or the 150 percent level in the House would be enormous. Even California only covers up to 106 percent of the poverty level….
While Obama has often spoken about how he won't raise taxes on the middle class, his healthcare legislation will require the governors to do so.
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