The Patriot Post® · Universal Medicare Replaces ObamaCare

Funding of Universal Medicare (UMC) is provided by a 3% National Sales Tax (NST) with NO exceptions or exemptions. NST applies equally to all transactions involving goods, services, and funds sent out of the US, or repatriated from foreign sources. NST applies to manufacturing, wholesale, retail, imports, resale, trades, and services.

All individuals and organizations including charitable, non-profit, religious, education, foundations, political, and all entities including Government are subject to NST. Government payments revert back to Government but not to be recycled into current Budget Spending. UMC does not add new regulations or bureaucracies as the superstructure and regulations for MediCare already exist and have a history, meaning a smooth transition, unlike ObamaCare and its web portal HealthCare.gov.

According to the July 6, 2010 analysis by attorney Lanny Davis published in The Hill, extracted from Rep Chakah Fatttah, Representative for Phila, PA, as presented March 16, 2011, in H.R. 1125, “THE DEBT FREE AMERICA ACT,” there were $755 trillion in total transactions in the US in 2008; $443 trillion if exempting stock transactions. In 2008, Fedwire payments systems sent 131 million payments, valued at $755 trillion, over its system, with an average payment size of $5.75 million. During the same period, CHIPS handled about 92 million transactions, valued at $508.8 trillion.

Based on validity of those numbers, and elimination of purely cash transactions like payment for Notes, Mortgages, home rent, credit cards, tax-free checks cashed, etc., NST may raise $7 trillion annually, double current Annual Budget Spending, while spreading tax burden to all residents, legal or not. Allocation of NST is one-third each for Budget, UMC for all legal residents of the US, and the balance toward National Debt reduction.

The 1% NST dedicated to UMC automatically eliminates most mandated State Medicaid benefits, costs, and related overhead, thereby reducing State budget shortfalls and State tax requirements. ObamaCare funds Medicaid temporarily while transferring liability for future costs to the States, one reason some States declined to accept ObamaCare funding assistance.

UMC changes should include revocation of at least the last two Executive Orders that arbitrarily reduced reimbursement to medical providers, thus delaying retirement and encouraging more vital entrants into the medical field, particularly an expansion of Nurse Practitioners to supplement the doctor pool.

A minimum simple mandated front and back Summary Income Tax return, regardless of income or not, would determine the monthly and annual amounts due or lower income credit toward MediCare co-pay, deductible, and monthly Part B charges, that could be adjusted downward according to income level. Annual tax returns would create the basis for an annual census that would enable quicker government response to current conditions and need for fiscal actions.

Naysayers agonize that taxes always go up, but can rest assured that revenues from the 3% NST rises in proportion to the certain rise of inflation. This tax and the IRS as it exists today can be eliminated once the combined NST is sufficient to carry Budget, UMC, while National Debt trends downward and reducing toward zero instead of constantly rising.

Other negative comments include the fact that the “poor” pay too much compared to the wealthy, but the wealthy have more to spend and therefore pay more NST toward Budget, UMC, and National Debt. Wealthy always have more to spend, and do spend, they will always support a substantial part of the burden of paying for the poor.

Others fret about the collection process, but that is already in place as employers are required to deposit Withheld Taxes into government accounts at authorized banks that are also in place. IRS oversight would be substantially limited, but can learn how to collect and audit NST collections from Sales-Tax States. Tests for valid UMC coverage are a valid Social Security Number or Green card for employment, or student or work visa, and Summary Income Tax return validated by E-Verify.

NST on stock market transactions should be set at ½ of 1%, beating the International movement toward the inevitability of this type of tax. This ½% stock market transaction tax could net $1 trillion five hundred sixty billion and inhibit negative and controversial effects of High Frequency Trading (HFT) executed by sophisticated algorithms that in the blink of an eye cause artificial volatility available only to big traders that can create cataclysmic declines in Stock Market values that when out of control can collapse the entire economy, as has previously occurred on a small scale.

Simultaneously, the existing IRS Income Tax code can be dispensed with, and temporarily replaced with a graduated maximum 20% business and personal income tax table along with elimination of industry specific deductions and other non-cash deductions abused by top earners, particularly value of charitable gifts to organizations and Foundations they directly or indirectly control, with property gifts at accelerated market value far in excess of cost.

Non-cash gifts to Foundations tend to create personal family empires, and those deductions should be disallowed completely. ALL income would be equal with no special treatment for Wall Street, Capital Gains, implied interest, earned and unearned income, and income attributed to the value of welfare benefits and gifts.

Problem Solved. Unworkable ObamaCare is replaced with UMC, covering 100% of legal US residents, while saving State Medicaid, and reducing all Income Taxes below World Average, creating a business atmosphere for job growth.

Details and New Graduated Income Tax Table are included in 3-Page Tax and Universal Medicare Plan available from [email protected].