So, there I was on Oct.
31, handing little chocolate bars to children on my porch, then
going back to my computer to order books from Amazon before it
started collecting the Massachusetts sales tax on Nov. 1. I wanted “Rush
Revere and the Brave Pilgrims” for my grandchildren and the new
Krauthammer book for myself; then I added two inexpensive
paperbacks from the wish list that I use when I need to increase my
order to get free shipping.
Amazon recently
increased the amount one has to spend for free shipping, so I
probably won’t be using it as much now that I won’t get my
taxpayer-activist satisfaction from avoiding the sales tax. That’s
the bright side of the state taxing my Amazon purchase: more
business for the local bookstores. The dark side is the money will
be wasted.
In fact, it isn’t
really needed. I saw Gov. Deval Patrick on “Meet the Press” last
Sunday, talking about appearing with President Obama in Boston to
compare Obamacare with Romneycare. Patrick assured the national
audience that “now we have virtually universal coverage ... It has
not broken the budget.”
Easy to say, when in
your first term you increased the sales tax rate from 5 percent to
6.25 percent. And yet ... a Monday RedMassGroup posting reminded us
of a 2011 news item from the Boston Globe: “Gov. Deval Patrick
approved a record $9.6 billion last July for the state’s health
insurance program for the poor — sufficient, he assumed, to last a
year. But the program’s costs quickly outpaced expectations, forcing
the governor to approve an additional $329 million in October and
then seek $258 million more, which lawmakers approved last week. And
even that may not last, with six months remaining in the budget year
... With Massachusetts confronting an estimated $1.5 billion
shortfall in the coming budget year, Patrick has said he is
committed to financing the program, known as MassHealth ...”
So, the governor passed
another tax package that increased the gas tax, tobacco tax, and
created a new tax on computer sales (since repealed), not to mention
further automatic inflation-adjusted gas tax hikes that are
presently being protested with an initiative petition. These were
sold as necessary new revenues to cover transportation spending that
apparently has been pushed aside in favor of paying the highest
health insurance costs in the nation and record Medicaid spending.
He didn’t mention any
of this during the joint appearance with Obama, just babbled through
the Democrats’ ongoing embarrassment about the disastrous rollout of
Obamacare by noting unhelpfully that “the Affordable Care Act is not
a website.” Didn’t mention that it IS a cancellation of
millions of existing policies that Barack Obama told Americans they
could keep.
Mitt Romney also
appeared on “Meet the Press” and was much more focused. He told host
David Gregory, “There’s no question in my mind but had the president
been truthful and told the American people that millions would lose
their insurance and millions more would see their premiums skyrocket
— had he told them that at the time it was going through Washington,
there would have been such a huge cry against it, it would not have
passed.
“Whether you like the
model of Obamacare or not, the fact that the president sold it on a
basis that was not true has undermined the foundation of his second
term. I think it’s rotting it away.”
Fine, let it rot. We
can look forward to rebuilding the country as soon as we get a new
president. But things will get a lot worse before they get better.
The problem with health
care that led to the creation of Obamacare is that its cost will
continue to increase as more of us get older — unless the Obamacare
insurance cancellations and predictable inability of the government
to manage big projects kills us off earlier than had been expected.
Let’s look at another
health care problem, of which we were reminded at a recent State
House hearing before the Public Service Committee. To his credit,
Gov. Patrick has been working to address the costs of state and
municipal employee health insurance, among the highest in the states
and, according to Secretary of Administration and Finance Glen Shor,
“more generous than 90 percent of employers in the commonwealth.”
The governor’s new
bill, HB 59, would change public employees’ eligibility requirements
for retiree health benefits that are creating a $45 billion-$50
billion unfunded liability over 30 years. The combined pension and
healthcare liabilities are the states’ version of the national debt
— and all of them are unsustainable. Nevertheless, the public
employee unions are strongly opposed to the reforms.
Well, the piper will be
paid when the chickens come home to roost. In Massachusetts,
property taxes are limited by
Proposition 2½, but the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation
testified that employee benefit costs “are growing faster than
municipal revenues.”
At all levels of
government, the choices are grim. Tax increases to cover the
government debt would drive the economy into depression. One
alternative, major service cuts, could cause civil unrest. The other
alternative, reform with better management of priorities, is
becoming hard to imagine.
