Code Red Rally Today Against Gov’t Health Care

Rep. Michele Bachmann at 2009 Values Voter Summit

Thousands of Americans all across the country in their congressional districts and in Washington D.C. rallied today against the proposed government takeover of the health care industry.

The Hill had this to say:

Their efforts — largely reminiscent of the 9/12 and “House Call” protests from earlier this year — capped off an afternoon rally that featured remarks from Sens. Tom Coburn (R-Okla) and Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), Rep. Michele Bachmann, (R-Minn.) conservative radio host Laura Ingraham and others.

Protesters chanted “Kill this bill!” — as they have at previous rallies — while carrying signs decrying what many called “Obummer-care.” Throughout the event, one man dressed as a grim reaper pretended to whip cariactures of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and other political figures.

Rep. Bachmann is one of the most outspoken conservative leaders on the Hill today.  She talked about a number of the problems with the current socialized medicine plan, including the “marriage penalty” in it.

From CitizenLink:

For instance, in the House version, an unmarried couple each making $30,000 a year would pay $1,320 combined each year for private health insurance. If that couple chose to marry, their premium would jump to $12,000 a year, a difference of $10,680.

Allen Quist, a former Minnesota State legislator and current candidate for Congress, discovered the penalty while looking at numbers from the Committees on Ways and Means, Energy & Commerce, and Education & Labor.

“This extraordinary penalty people will pay, should they marry, extends all the way from a two-person combined income of $58,280 to $86,640, a spread of $28,360,” he wrote in a blog post. “A large number of people fall within this spread. As premiums for private insurance escalate, as expected, the marriage penalty will become substantially larger.”

The Senate bill includes a similar penalty.

“The Senate bill stipulates that two unmarried people, 52 years of age, with private insurance and a combined income of $60,000, $30,000 each, will pay a combined cost of $2,483 for medical insurance,” Quist wrote. “Should they marry, however, they will pay a combined cost of $11,666 for insurance — a penalty of $9,183 for getting married.”

The numbers are based on the government’s definition of “poverty level.” Those above poverty level will pay higher premiums, and the excess would be redistributed to those in lower income levels.

This mess is nothing but a bad-medicine step toward the total government takeover of health care. It incentivizes all the wrong behaviors and punishes all the right ones.

If these socialists insist on forcing this monstrosity on the American people, we’re just going to get rid of it next year when we toss them out on their Red behinds and start the work of getting America back on the free-market track that helped produce the most prosperous nation in history.

But it would be better to spare the American people all the taxes, trouble and confusion of this mess altogether.

Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-MN) & Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK)

Laura Ingraham’s “Naughty and Nice” Congressional List

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