Democrats want to extend COVID-era Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies. Republicans are pitching a plan to fund health savings accounts (HSA). Neither plan passed the Senate Thursday — both were voted down. Brad McElhinny filed a full report from a West Virginia point of view.
Now the pundits are out in full force — liberal and conservative — lecturing us on why their side is right and the other is wrong. Why their plan will work and the other will fail. That misses the mark.
Here’s a third perspective: neither plan has real merit. Unpopular opinion? Probably. But popularity and responsibility often travel opposite paths.
The subsidy extension carries a price tag north of $300 billion over ten years. Ouch.
The HSA proposal — $1,000 for adults 18 to 49 and $1,500 for those 50 to 65 earning less than 700 percent of the poverty level — will drive costs higher too. If it’s been officially scored, the number isn’t being advertised, and no one seems eager to say it out loud.
Which brings us to reality: pick something.
The national debt is closing in on $39 trillion. In the first two fiscal months of the new budget year, we’ve already added more than $400 billion — a pace pointing straight toward another $2 trillion deficit.
Yet instead of making hard choices about the big-ticket programs — Social Security heading toward insolvency, Medicare and Medicaid, defense spending, and ballooning discretionary items — Washington keeps hunting for new ways to spend money we simply do not have.
No one wants to see Americans struggle. But cash is finite — unless we fire up the printing press, torch the world’s reserve currency, and dilute the savings of everyone who did the right things like saving and living within their means.
Tough decisions are unavoidable. Instead, Washington shrinks from fiscal reality, bows to political pressure, and refuses to tell the American people the simple truth: we can’t afford it. Full stop.
It’s apparently easier to inch toward the financial abyss than to say “no.” That’s not leadership. It’s not courage. It’s job preservation dressed up as compassion.
The truth is… America can’t afford either plan. Taxes are already high enough for those who pay them, leaving families with less take-home pay for groceries, electricity, and basic necessities. Millions of others earn too little to pay income taxes at all — yet another cost absorbed somewhere else in the system. Add that to the benefit list.
And we don’t have enough billionaires to fix anything. Seize every dollar of billionaire wealth and you’d fund the government for only a few years before ending up right back where we started. Raise the threshold to households with more than $100 million and the same thing happens — Washington would burn through it in no time, then lower the bar until the 401(k) savers and 60-hour-a-week strivers take the hit.
Tax increases or a new wealth tax aren’t answers. They’re short-term crutches.
America is an opportunity, not a guarantee. It can only do so much — and it’s already doing more than it can afford. The balance sheet spells that out clearly. If government-sponsored healthcare is a priority, then Americans must agree to give something else up. Take your pick he said knowing full well that will never happen.
We used to have that discipline under rules like PAYGO and other sensible guardrails. Congress decided to ignore them — and here we are.
Enough is enough. Time to either cancel other spending to make room for healthcare or admit this problem is not for government to solve.
Editor’s Note: I’m away from the studio next week on vacation. See you again on December 22. Merry Christmas.