Pardon the headline, he was with Fianna Fail but upon realising his goodness and moral standing he had the good sense to resign. Wicklow TD Joe Behan who has resigned from the party following the recent abolishment of the automatic entitlement to a medical card for the over 70s. The Greens (read ingratiating taxation apologists) are currently on the Right Hook suggesting that this seemed a reasonable way to reform an abused scheme. Who was doing the abusing? Well, both FF and the Greens are suggesting it was the doctors who used it as “easy money” with ever higher expenses being claimed so it obvously made sense to penalise the elderly. It’s like locking up homeowners when their houses are burgled. It’s tackling the wrong side of the problem.
The Greens are also saying the scheme has “now been shown to be unfair” and so needs a rethink. Do any of them own a friggin calculator? What kind of a lame-brained load of toss of an excuse is that? The unfairness of this scheme was obvious when it was announced yet the cabinet saw fit to vote for it. So FF hate the middle classes and the Greens just hate people, those pesky polluting organisms. As I pointed out in my last post there will be less people to worry about with fuel price increases and the withdrawal of tens of thousands of medical cards. If only this scheme could be implemented worldwide? Think of the reduction of carbon emissions!
If you can put up with 70 years of crap governance then a medical card is a small benefit and should be considered an automatic right. The “rich” don’t need to use a medical card as they have private health care in their old age. Michael O’ Leary pointed this out in his usual entertaining sytle on NewsTalk earlier today. Their health care costs rise however, I wonder why that is. Perhaps the problem is actually that age leads to a deterioration of health. Wow, I think I’m on to something here. We need to abolish old age instead.
I hope Noel Dempsey takes note (still clueless) who blathered on about the medical card reform targetting “the rich”. Do FF not know that their property developer and builder friends are the real rich as opposed to the embattled middle and upper middle classes they screwed over so comprehensively at the last budget.
As I’m listening the Minister for Hardship, Brian Lenihan, is now talking about “taking decisions for the good of the country. For the good of the country could they suspend ludicrous infrastructure projects like the Metro in Dublin? What economic growth will be produced by this? It’s only required because of a complete failure to implement decentralisation over a 15+ year period. How about a further tax increase for those earning over 250k/year? Just a percent but there are many such high earners and they can arguably afford it. Unless they fell for the same Ponzi-scheme property scam as the rest of us…
How about any incentive for creating jobs, like personal tax relief for shareholder/directors of companies which create new high-skills jobs in IT, biochem, pharma, financial services etc. I’ll suggest it again: remove employers PRSI. It’s a disincentive to hire. Apart from the R&D tax relief increase the budget was a tale of woe for industry, retail and most PAYE employees. Quite an achievement really.
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