Monday, September 21, 2009

Pay The Piper Or How You Pay a Penalty for Glut

It hit me this weekend like a blinding ray of light. So, I pass this along to you Mr. President and your allies. Here a couple of ideas to pay for a portion of your desire to force us to take the exact health insurance plan mandated by Congress for us but not them. Yes, Congress and the we understand that you, Mr. President and Congress will continue to get the Rolls Royce of health insurance plans while we struggle to pay our own premiums for policies designed by Congress who obviously know better than we do about what we need or can afford.

So here our two options:

1. Fat Tax. More Americans are obese than ever before. More Americans are obese than any other country. The result is that these specific people cost the rest of us extra on our health insurance. This fact is well documented by many sources. Around thirty-two percent of Americans are deemed obese compared with between 10 and 20% of other major nations who provide universal coverage. According to the source of all knowledge, Wikipedia "Obesity is associated with many diseases, particularly heart disease, type 2 diabetes, breathing difficulties during sleep, certain types of cancer, and osteoarthritis.Obesity is most commonly caused by a combination of excessive dietary calories, lack of physical activity, and genetic susceptibility, though a limited number of cases are due solely to genetics, medical reasons or psychiatric illness." So, lets tax these people who are a significant cause of our high heath care costs. Tax them by the pound. Now, before you get your snoot in an uproar, I am not talking about the slightly fat, those with a paunch in the middle to hold your beer can fat, I am singling out those who are obese. Each year, every individual would see their doctor or other authorized fat center and be weighed. This weight certificate would be attached to their tax return along with a form calculating the number of pounds you are above the prescribed normal and a tax would be added to your liability. You eat, you pay.

2. The Glutton Wage Tax. Everyone understands that the people at the top make more than people at the bottom. It is understood that without the proper leadership a company will go nowhere. Other the other hand, a company that is losing money should not be paying large bonuses to the top management. A real factor on the Gluttony Scale is the ratio between the top and the bottom. So, lets pick a figure of say 200. As long as the top people do not make more than 200 times the individuals on the bottom, everything is fine. If, on the other hand, the top people are making more than 200 times the bottom layer, a luxury tax would kick in, just like the sports teams pay. When I am talking about compensation, I mean total compensation including perks for all kinds ... from extra pension plans, stock options, first class air travel, car, driver, use of vacation spots, every benefit paid for people would be included in the Glutton Wage Tax calculation. The tax would be 100% of the compensation over the 200 level. We are not talking about making the dollars not deductible but instead a dollar for dollar tax that is paid regardless of other income tax that the company may pay. So, if a company feels their top brass is worth more than 200 times the janitor ... well, they would pay a luxury glutton tax.

So, Mr. President send these ideas to the appropriate committees and have them flesh out the details. Just remember, whatever they determine is best for America should be certainly good enough for you and Congress since you all work for America. Just like public education is good enough for us ... it should be good enough for yours and the Congresses' children but that is another subject entirely.

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