Used to be that liberalism was about caring for the little guy and the weakest among us, as opposed to being a platform for keeping a small group of elites in permanent power. How far contemporary liberalism has strayed from its roots can be displayed by one of the more onerous and invasive facets of the Democrat's health care reform - the hard cap on individual's flexible spending accounts (FSAs), pretax money that we have previously been "allowed" to use to alleviate excessive medical expenses, from prescriptions to eyeglasses.
Not any more. Barack Obama is wiser than we, and is limiting the amount of any FSA to $2500, so that squirrely Americans are unable to hold onto personal income that should be subjected to all the king's taxes. And of course, those who need this money the most, such as parents with disabled children, will be hurt the most. Via Americans for Tax Reform:
The “Special Needs Kids Tax” takes effect Jan. 1, 2011: This provision of Obamacare imposes a cap on flexible spending accounts (FSAs) of $2500 (Currently, there is no federal government limit). There is one group of FSA owners for whom this new cap will be particularly cruel and onerous: parents of special needs children. There are thousands of families with special needs children in the United States, and many of them use FSAs to pay for special needs education. Tuition rates at one leading school that teaches special needs children in Washington, D.C. (National Child Research Center) can easily exceed $14,000 per year. Under tax rules, FSA dollars can be used to pay for this type of special needs education. (Page 1999/Sec. 9005/$14 billion)...
This is no accident, this is a party and a president who has a special hatred for special-needs children. Remember the focus put on poor Trig Palin, and the blame laid at the feet of his mother for his condition? Remember a certain president yukking it up on late night TV about his bowling being qualified for the "Special Olympics"? One can only imagine his glee - perhaps at a health care reform bull-session - at the idea of putting a special tax on folks like Sarah Palin who choose to have a special child. The "Trig Tax", indeed.
And how about a certain doctor, who happens to be the brother of the president's Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel? He has made clear the Left's feelings for where special needs children fit into our society:
"...medical care should be reserved for the non-disabled, not given to those "who are irreversibly prevented from being or becoming participating citizens . . . An obvious example is not guaranteeing health services to patients with dementia"
~Dr. Ezekial Emanuel
So if you choose to have a child with special needs, don't expect the government to help you. In fact, for choosing to birth such a child, the government will punish you by not allowing you the funding necessary to give your son or daughter the medical treatment or educational services they require. It's reserved for others, don't you see, and by keeping more of your own pre-tax dollars, you are limiting the government's ability to redistribute the money you need to help your child to other citizens who might be more...participatory.
But if you want to abort such a child, the government is fine with that. In fact, they will pay for it.
Such legislation is not just poor policy, but borders on the sociopathic.
Welcome to Change.
No comments:
Post a Comment