Here's the federal budget pie. Start slicing and dicing to pay for single payer.

[sixmile]

A large portion of the budget goes to debt servicing and foreign affairs.

A "check's in the mail" approach should keep the repo man at bay, and a 'head in the sand' foreign policy for a couple years could free up a couple more bucks. C'mon, people, I know we can slice up some pie!

2007 Federal Budget

$586.1 billion (+7.0%) - Social Security
$548.8 billion (+9.0%) - Defense
$394.5 billion (+12.4%) - Medicare
$294.0 billion (+2.0%) - Unemployment and welfare
$276.4 billion (+2.9%) - Medicaid and other health related
$243.7 billion (+13.4%) - Interest on debt
$89.9 billion (+1.3%) - Education and training
$76.9 billion (+8.1%) - Transportation
$72.6 billion (+5.8%) - Veterans' benefits
$43.5 billion (+9.2%) - Administration of justice
$33.1 billion (+5.7%) - Natural resources and environment
$32.5 billion (+15.4%) - Foreign affairs
$27.0 billion (+3.7%) - Agriculture
$26.8 billion (+28.7%) - Community and regional development
$25.0 billion (+4.0%) - Science and technology
$20.5 billion (+0.8%) - Energy
$20.1 billion (+11.4%) - General government

[Barack_America]

1. "Global War on Terror"-should be enough for health care AND a pony for all. nt

[Hippo_Tron]

2. In a dictatorship it would be as simple as slicing and dicing

In a democracy where we have a congress with single-member districts, it's much harder. You saw how difficult it was to cut the F-22 a plane we don't use. Congressmen depend on the military industrial complex to bring jobs to their districts. We can talk all we want about how we should cut military spending for health care but until somebody figures out how to get it through Congress, it's still just talk.

[sixmile]

9. Do we actually need to have 535 seats in Congress?

A simple majority can do great things.

[jwirr]

3. Some of that is already being used to pay for healthcare.

[pokercat999]

4. First I'd end two unlawful wars now...today, close all overseas

military bases and cut defense by no less than half. Medicare would be gone as I'd roll it into single payer. The medical portion of VA would also roll over into single payer. Whatever portion of the government payroll that goes to pay the employer portion of all federal employees would also roll into single payer. That should do it.

Two years from now I would look to cut defense by half again.

[Vinca]

5. How about we take a hefty chunk out of "transportation?"

After reading about the latest Congressional "fact finding" trips, I say we pull the plug.

[WeDidIt]

6. #1 - Increase Revenues

USe the surcharge method on the richest Americans to start with.

LEgalize Cannabis and tax it for another.

Then pull out of Iraq and apply those savings.

There's healthcare AND an increase in education.

[Cleita]

7. Being that Medicare and Social Security are supposed to be paid out

of FICA tax and therefore self funded, I don't understand why it's considered part of the budget. However, I think you could seriously end those two wars we shouldn't be in in order to cut the defense budget in half to maintain a peacetime military, and there you have a good chunk of money to fund health care for everyone.

[krispos42]

8. Make the pie bigger.

5% flat tax on all income, indivicual, corporate, capital gains, etc. No ceiling, no floor.

We could probably cut health spending in half, down to about a trillion bucks a year. The taxable income on individuals alone was over 8 trillion in 2007. 5% of that is 400 billion. Throw in a corporate tax, then on capital gains... we'd be sitting pretty well, most likely.


Or maybe 6%. Whatever. I'm spending about 9% of my gross pay on Medicare and private health insurance anyway.... 6% would actually put money in my pocket, as I would no longer need private health insurance.

[dhpgetsit]

10. Single-payer would give small businesses and employment a huge boost

And that would translate to a bigger pie.
And remember we spend more on "defense" than the entire rest of the world combined.
People who say we can't afford HCR are wrong. We can't afford the status quo.

[John Q. Citizen]

11. Easy and my pleasure. First thing is to

see what it currently costs us. That would be 2 trillion, of which about half is paid for by goverment expenditures and half by private expenditures.

So we take the 1 trillion that govenment is spending on heath care every year currently and we put it into the single payer pool.

Of the 1 trillion that is private expenditure about 25% is overhead and profit for private insurance companies. We will use the money we save (about 250 billion) to insure the the 15 percent of the population who are currently unisured.

Proposed Funding For HR 676 Program

Maintain current federal and state funding for existing healthcare programs; employer payroll tax of 4.5%, an employee payroll tax of 3.3%, in addition to the already existing 1.45% for Medicare; establish a 5% health tax on the top 5% of income earners; 10% tax on top 1% of wage earners, 1/3rd of 1% stock transaction tax, closing corporate tax loop-holes; repeal the Bush tax cut for the highest income earners.

This would fund comprehensive coverage for all.