It's coming...

[sagedil]

Not really. Car insurance and motorcycle insurance is done completely separately. Reality, we pay much less than you do, we cause FAR less damage than you do. :wink:

[lxskllr]

Not really. Car insurance and motorcycle insurance is done completely separately. Reality, we pay much less than you do, we cause FAR less damage than you do. :wink:

I'm talking about health insurance. Bikers don't pay any more than I do, but when they wreck the cost can be astronomical. Even routine stuff like a ripped leg, a concussion, or a helicopter ride add significantly to insurance costs.

[bakerbarber]

I'm for it. Once all these do gooders get their pleasures taxed, maybe people will wake the hell up and things will change. The government needs to get out of the parenting business. I don't need any more than the 2 I was issued at birth.

I hear you.

I for one believe that only good education will help people make healthy choices.

Those who choose to indulge in anything legal should not suffer taxation because of it.

To try and justify subsidizing anything by taxing things that are perceived to be unhealthy is a slippery slope.

The argument can easily be made to label many things and activities dangerous in one way or another.

[MasterGuns]

I'm a bit of a utilitarian when it comes to public health problems people bring upon themselves (this includes me as well). I say the solution is simply to refuse public health care to them. Sound like a death panel? Yeah, it kind of would be. But it would save the taxpayers tons of dough and the headache of having to pay for other peoples self-induced health problems.
In my philosophy class we talked about addiction, and how the popular definition allows almost anything to become addictive, therefore relieving people of personal responsibility. For those who are morbidly obese, the excuse is "I can't help it, I'm addicted to eating. Help me, Uncle Sam!" Horseshite, I say.
If someone won't be floated by health care and continues their self-destructive behavior, perhaps society would be better off without them. It all comes down to personal responsibility. People have to quit blaming others and start looking inward for the solutions to their problems. Until that happens, there will never be an end to excessive taxes on "sins" or "pleasures". I say it's not, nor will it ever be, the governments place to tell people what is or isn't good for them, nor is it acceptable that people expect the government to save them from themselves.

[RRK]

I say the solution is simply to refuse public health care to them.

Well that sort of goes against the whole idea of public healthcare. How's about free market health care. You could choose to be a part of a health insurance program that denies whichever activity you are willing to deny yourself. Price would then reward good behavior.

[MasterGuns]

I'm impossible to please on this issue. I distrust corporations just as much as I distrust politicians.
A corporations duty is to maximize profit and minimize cost. That kind of thinking has no place in health care.
At the same time, neither do taxpayer dollars.
Not-for-profit private health care is the only possible way to do it right, but that's never gonna happen because of the needs of research and development for new treatments and drugs. That's the one plus of the private health care system. That's why other countries with public health care use treatments, drugs, and technology primarily developed in the U.S.
I guess the only viable solution is a proper balance. One which includes personal responsibility and corporate accountability.

[RRK]

A corporations duty is to maximize profit and minimize cost.

You can trust a corporation to do those things, unlike the government. I would hope that my health care provider could remain solvent while giving me the best bang for my buck. If another company can give me something more I could choose to purchase their service, unlike the government.

[skruf_mcgruff]

I think taxing fast food and soda will mark the downfall of america and people in general. You can call me crazy, but I am not even defending these products, and I also find americas' obesity problem to be pretty pathetic at this point. I am lighter than I would like to be actually, and I exercise, but I find this to be the absolutely worst way of anyone handling the situation.

To me it is like saying **** it, we cannot possibly educate our people or raise their own concern for their own life to even the slightest, let's try to bring the problem down by 2 percent, make some money, and call it a deal done and forgotten.

[african redbush]

They don't want you to cut down or quit using these products. They just want the tax money!

this must be the only logical answer. these taxes won't help the obesity problem... the problem lies within eating/exercise habits of individuals.

as usual, the media creates a mass hysteria and the government capitalizes on it. look at the h1n1 virus for example...

[wadetheblade]

Some of you get it, some of you don't..... I just went back and erased a long paragraph that I wrote, because it's not a fight worth having on a snus site. Taxes will come and taxes will go. It's part of life as an American. I don't drink soda so I really don't care.

[wadetheblade]

Coca Cola could easily just go ahead and raise the price of their drinks by 40 cents. Guess what? Youll pay it. Just like smokers pay crazy prices for cigarettes. It's really a matter of where this tax money goes.

[justintempler]

Unless this country abolishes Medicare the future health care bills will need to paid from somewhere.
Tobacco taxes
Soda taxes
Taxes on individual plastic water bottles

The writing is on the wall. If you're too blind to see that,
here's some:

to go with your whine :twisted:

[RRK]

Unless this country abolishes Medicare the future health care bills will need to paid from somewhere.

An income surtax on taxpayers earning more than $500,000 a year,
An excise tax on high-cost "Cadillac" health insurance plans that cost more than $8,500 a year for individuals or $21,000 for families,
An excise tax on medical devices such as wheelchairs, breast pumps, and syringes used by diabetics for insulin injections,
A cap on the exclusion of employer-provided health insurance without offsetting tax cuts,
A limit on itemized deductions for taxpayers with a top income tax rate greater than 28 percent,
A windfall profits tax on health insurance companies,
A value-added tax, which would tax the value added to a product at each stage of production,
An increase in the Medicare portion of the payroll tax to 3.4 percent for incomes great than $200,000 a year ($250,000 for married filers),
An excise tax on sugar-sweetened beverages including non-diet soda and sports drinks,
Higher taxes on alcoholic beverages including beer, wine, and spirits,
A tax on individuals without acceptable health care coverage of up to 2.5 percent of their adjusted gross income,
A limit on contributions to health savings accounts,
An 8 percent tax on all wages paid by employers that do not provide their employees health insurance that satisfies the requirements defined by the Secretary of Health and Human Services,
A limit on contributions to flexible spending arrangements,
Elimination of the deduction for expenses associated with Medicare Part D subsidies,
An increase in taxes on international businesses,
Elimination of the tax credits paper companies take for biofuels they create in their production process--the so-called "Black Liquor credit,"
Fees on insured and self-insured health plans,
A limit or repeal of the itemized deduction for medical expenses,
A limit on the Qualified Medical Expense definition,
An increase in the payroll taxes on students,
An extension of the Medicare payroll tax to all state and local government employees,
An increase in taxes on hospitals,
An increase in the estate tax,
Increased efforts to close the mythical "tax gap,"
A 5 percent tax on cosmetic surgery and similar procedures such as Botox treatments, tummy tucks, and face lifts,
A tax on drug companies,
An increase in the corporate tax on providers of health insurance,
and
A $500,000 deduction limitation for the compensation paid by health insurance companies to their officers, employees, and directors.

[sgreger1]

Sage, you don't like other people costing you money eh? But it's just classic wealth redistribution, I thought you were a champion of that? The fat people NEED more assistance so those who are healthy should subsidize them. Isn't this what the liberals have been saying for years? A poor drug addict NEEDS money, so those of you who work need to pay him.


This country has a growing debt problem, and you can only raise taxes to a certain point before it reaches critical mass and chokes out the economy for good.

We all know these food taxes won't curb anyone's obesity problem, it will just cost them more. This is part of a growing trend i'm seeing in Washington where the congress wants to run gov like a corporation, trying to pull in as much money as possible.

I don't think I have to mention that that is not their job.

[sgreger1]

@RRK

Where did you get that list. Is that all the proposed ways to bring in cash to pay for free healthcare? lol