This just in - President Bush's Health Insurance tax deduction from the SOTU.

[John of Argghhh!]

SOTU Preview:

Standard Deduction For Health Insurance

"So in my State of the Union Address next Tuesday, I will propose a tax reform designed to help make basic private health insurance more affordable – whether you get it through your job or on your own."

– President George W. Bush, Radio Address, 1/20/07

Additional Information About The President's Proposed Standard Deduction For Health Insurance

· The President's primary goal is to make health insurance more affordable, allowing more Americans to purchase insurance.

· In his State of the Union Address, the President will propose a "standard deduction for health insurance" – just like the standard deduction for dependents.

· Under the President's proposal, families with health insurance will not pay income or payroll taxes on the first $15,000 in compensation and singles will not pay income or payroll taxes on the first $7,500.

· At the same time, health insurance would be considered taxable income. This is a change for those who now have health insurance through their jobs. The President's proposal will result in lower taxes for about 80 percent of them. The 20 percent of them with more generous policies will have the option to adjust their compensation to have lower premiums and higher wages to offset the tax change.

· The President's proposal levels the playing field for Americans who purchase health insurance individually rather than through their employers, providing a substantial tax benefit for all those who currently have health insurance purchased on the individual market.

· This proposal lowers taxes for all currently uninsured Americans who decide to purchase health insurance – making insurance more affordable and providing a significant incentive to all working Americans to purchase insurance coverage, thereby reducing the number of uninsured Americans.

· As we reform the Federal tax code, we will also support the innovative measures that States are taking to address the problem of the uninsured. Governors across the Nation have put forward plans to make basic private health insurance more accessible for their citizens.

· In his State of the Union Address, the President will announce a new effort – led by Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt – to help governors reduce the number of people in their states without private health insurance.

Any smart guys with informed opinions here?

I'm trying to see how it will affect we military types who use the military system, TRICARE, in all it's forms.

The government *does* pay into it, but I don't think they do so in the same way that, say, General Motors or Sears does - those policies, procured from specific companies, will have price tags attached.

I do see the Pentagon seeing a way to set the cost at the high end (where it may, in fact, be) in order to force as many of us as possible into the "The 20 percent of them with more generous policies will have the option to adjust their compensation to have lower premiums and higher wages to offset the tax change." group so that those of us who can will jump to employer-provided coverage.

Heh. The devil will be in the details. On a first read, by unsophisticated me, it doesn't sound that bad - but... I sense a pay cut or benefit cut coming my way, at one end or the other, simply because I'm in a group that doesn't appear to be really covered here in the vision. We'll see. It's got to get past Congress, first.

Perry Advocates Bombing North Korea, Again

[GIKorea]

Former Clinton Administration Defense Secretary William Perry is once again advocating starting a war with North Korea by bombing it’s nuclear reactor:

Former U.S. Defense Secretary William Perry proposed Thursday that the United States should consider military action against North Korea if China and South Korea refuse to prod Pyongyang to end its nuclear weapons program, according to a report by Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Although the move is dangerous, there is no alternative left if China and South Korea, the two key economic lifelines to North Korea, do not join any U.S.-led “diplomatic coercive’’ action against Pyongyang, he told the Foreign Affairs Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington, D.C.

AFP quoted Perry, the Pentagon chief under former president Bill Clinton, as saying that the U.S. should consider destroying a large reactor under construction in North Korea capable of making about 10 nuclear bombs a year.

Clouding an Issue

[Greyhawk]

General Casey answers questions on "the surge":

Watch the video, then check the extended section for the resulting headline.

Run, Rabbit, Run

[Soldier's Mom]

From the story HERE

Al-Sadr said that 400 of his men had been arrested and that he is also being targeted, prompting him to move his family to a secure location, the Italian daily La Repubblica reported.

The Shiite cleric said he is being targeted.

"For this reason, I have moved my family to a secure location. I even have had a will drawn up, and I move continuously in a way that only few can know where I am," he was quoted as saying by Repubblica.

I thought dying for your faith was what Muqty was all about... you know, killing infidels and those that do not toe the line and pay money... er, believe as he does... I'm betting on a spidey hole

re: Oh Noes

[CDR Salamander]

John, like we say in the Polomac Flotilla: I non-concur. So do a few others.

There is probably no better way to get China's nationalists to demand a Great Leap Forward in military spending than to tell them they are two decades behind the United States.
...
The American public may now be lulled into a false sense of security by the "been there, done that" attitude prevalent in some quarters; or it may be sent into a panic that a new communist rival is about to replace it as Top Nation. But China's leaders will not be taken in by either myth, and will instead keep a cool eye on what really matters.

Despite appearances, what really matters to China is not whether its military and its space programme can catch up with America's.
...
They looked up and saw America's single greatest strength — the extraordinary satellite technology that enabled it to know where its enemies were and bomb them. And they realized its greatest strength was also its weakness, because while a human can fight back, a satellite cannot.

I think you are misunderestimating the Chinese and the helpful hint they just gave us. Think real hard about how much we rely on satellites. Real hard. Imagine that they go away. How long until we can use our technological advantage with back-up systems to the same level we need to? How much "fog" would their loss cause? Can we afford that? Have we exercised "off-line." Do you like the sound of crickets?

This is a great opportunity to ponder: we shouldn't dismiss it.

Democrats Vow to Fund the War

[ArmyLawyer]

Against global warming.

Close, so close.