Buried failed replacement for Obamacare was a huge handout to insurance CEOs.
By
It appears that House Speaker Paul Ryan’s 123-page legislative
plan for Trumpcare, the GOP’s so-called “replacement” for Obamacare, is dead —
for now, anyway.
Republicans tried to rush it through, but not before the
Congressional Budget Office discovered it was actually a displacement plan.
That is, if it had passed, 24 million Americans who are now
insured would have lost their insurance. Moreover, the premiums paid by senior
citizens would have been jacked up, and the benefits for practically everyone
would have been cut.
But Ryan did make sure that one group with special needs would
have benefited from his legislative wizardry: the CEOs of giant insurance
corporations.
Current tax law says insurers can pay as much as they want to
top executives, but they can only deduct $500,000 per executive from their
corporate taxes. Under Ryan’s rip-off, however, we taxpayers would have at
least doubled — and possibly quadrupled — the unconscionable salary subsidies
we dole out to these enormously profitable corporations.
The White House and GOP Congress proclaimed that their
replacement of Obamacare was “the will of the people.” Really? How many
Americans think that jacking up the pay of super-rich insurance chiefs is a
proper use of our tax dollars?
And I’d say a big majority of the people would think it immoral
to steal lifesaving healthcare benefits from working-class and poor families
just to subsidize corporate elites who are already overpaid.
If Republicans actually thought their executive pay subsidy was
the will of the people, why did they try so hard to keep it a secret?
OtherWords columnist Jim
Hightower is a radio commentator, writer, and public speaker. He’s also the editor
of the populist newsletter, The
Hightower Lowdown. Distributed by OtherWords.org.