Isakson Wants Tax Code, Regulations on the Table

Sen. Johnny Isakson wants competition in Medicare insurance coverage to put the beneficiary back in the game as a consumer.

Competition works, Isakson told the business and political leaders gathered at the North Fulton Chamber of Commerce Eggs & Enterprise breakfast at this morning. The Medicare system needs a means test on premiums. The consumer would go out and buy the type of health insurance policy wanted, and then pay the difference between what the government provides and the premium's cost.

He'd want the eligibility for Medicare to be tied to Social Security's eligibility.

Part D of Medicare, which covers prescription drug costs, got a lot of criticism at first, Isakson said.

"The premium has gone down almost every year since it was put in place," he said, because of its private funding.

"The same type of competition will make a remarkable difference in Medicare as well," he said.

Isakson also said the country can't deal with the spending and deficit problem if it doesn't deal with taxes.

The Bowles-Simpson commission recommended putting all tax expenditures on the table, wiping out all of the gimmicks and tax deductions. The tax rates would be reduced, but revenue could increase because the gimmicks are gone. Some tax breaks are legitimate, he said, but those for things such as ethanol and solar panels aren't worthwhile.

Overregulation is no help either, he said.

"We've got to understand that too much government and too much regulation is strangling our country," Isakson said.

The U.S. senator would allow foreclosures to happen without intervention. A former real estate broker, he believes the market would right itself quicker and with better values than with the delays caused by the federal government.

The failure of U.S. mortgage backed subprime securities brought down the housing market, which was too leveraged. Now the industry is overregulated, Isakson said.

"The credit markets are so tight and so difficult it's going to be hard for us to come out of this recession until we get some relief," he said.

"We have an overly regulatory mentality right now to eliminate risk," Isakson said.

By eliminating risk, you ruin free enterprise, he said, which depends upon a reasonable risk to generate a healthy return.

Isakson said his generation's challenge its to not be the first generation to leave its children worse off than it was.

"We cannot tax ourselves into prosperity anymore than we can regulate ourselves into prosperity," he said.

He said the nation's tax code needs to be put on the table. Business needs to be incentivize, and they need to go back to the drawing board on regulation.

"It's not our job to try to dictate the outcome of every single business and how it operates," Isakson said.