Not only Buffett-rule in the reform program presented by Barack Obama. In addition to the announced "tax for the rich", which provides for an increase in the rate at which financial transactions are taxed (now at 15%), the 450 billion package from the US President also mentions work and health. But the announcement did not have great positive effects on the financial markets: the American indices were all down in the afternoon.
"The health of the economy depends on what we do to create the conditions in which companies can hire, and the middle class perceives a condition of economic security." So Obama, emphasizing the prosperity of the United States depends on debt relief. "The plan for jobs", says the President, "will not add a penny to the deficit".
The President gave particular reassurances on the health system: in fact, the decision not to ask for any changes to Social Security, the American pension system that the democratic base absolutely does not want to see touched further, falls within the framework of the manoeuvre. And that of proposing less radical interventions than those previously envisaged on Medicare and Medicaid, the only American public health care services for the elderly and indigent.
Obama stresses: "We will have to do more to reduce waste related to subsidies and incorrect payments, but we will not arrive at a system that will leave the elderly at the mercy of government debt, nor will we reduce assistance to children or the handicapped." "Social security is certainly not the cause of our deficit, but the aging of the country poses problems", explains the American president.
