Support4Change Blog

March 8, 2008

Categories: Q-and-A Club: Exploring Social and Political Issues

By Arlene Harder, MFT

TAX-AND-SPEND GAME CATEGORY FIVE

• To understand what this topic is all about, read:

How Will the Election Change Our Taxes?

Rules of the Tax-and-Spend Game

• You can see the same questions I raise today if you go to Funding Physical and Mental Health in the Q-and-A Club section of the Support4Change website. There you will also be able to access all eleven categories of the game that I post on this blog every-other-day.

• Play the Tax-and-Spend Game and enter a drawing. See form below.

• Share the Tax-and-Spend Game with your family and friends so they can better decide what programs they want the government to fund and what programs they are willing to do without if they don’t want to their taxes raised.

How do you want your taxes to be spent in order to help citizens be as mentally and physically healthy as possible?

When we hear of another school shooting, we lament the lack of services for young people who might have been saved through intervention and counseling. Almost every day we see homeless people begging on the street. Are they are there because they have lost a job and home but are doing their best to find a job and get off the streets? Or are they there because they are mentally ill and unable to take care of themselves?

Many neighborhood mental health centers have lost funding even while, as here in California, large state mental hospitals are closed. Sufficient services simply are not available. And while private charities and community outreach to the homeless are to be commended for their efforts, often that is not enough.

Then there is the ongoing debate about health care generally. Without presenting here a specific program for your consideration, I suggest you decide whether health care is a right for everyone. Since it is unlikely that everyone can be helped simply through requiring uniform medical records (a savings which would, admittedly, reduce medical costs somewhat), are you willing to support additional funding beyond Medicare?

Of course, there is an argument to be made that we already have some form of universal health care if anyone can go to the hospital and receive emergency care. We won’t allow someone to die from an accident just because that person doesn’t carry insurance. Public hospitals, supported by taxes, care for millions of people each year. Many without insurance use the emergency room as their primary physician, which means they don’t get preventative care and in the end the cost is higher for everyone.

In other categories we’ve considered so far, we may be willing to pay more taxes for government programs that directly affect our own safety and security. In this instance, the benefit to us, personally, may not be obvious and, in fact, we may not be impacted directly if someone else benefits from our taxes. So the question is whether we feel in any way responsible for providing physical and mental health services to those who cannot afford them.

If you are aware of other programs funded by local, state, and/or national taxes that provide help for the physically and mentally ill that are not included in this list, please let me know. Use the Contact Us form.

• Basic health care for every citizen
  

• Basic health care for those who fall below the poverty level
  
  
• Emergency services for everyone who can’t afford them
  
  
• Basic health care for everyone, including illegal aliens who may have a disease that could infect others
  
  
• Health care programs with a specific emphasis on maternal and child care
  
  
• Programs for the aging
  
  
• Research for better drugs and improved medical equipment
  
  
• Drug and alcohol rehabilitation programs
  
  
• Research and control of emerging diseases
  
  
• Research for major diseases like cancer and HIV/AIDS
  
  
• Services for physically and mentally disabled
  
  
• Mental health clinics in the community
  

Enter a drawing for “Ask Yourself Questions and Change Your Life” after you have finished this category of the Tax-and-Spend Game

Each week I will give away my latest book, Ask Yourself Questions and Change Your Life. All you have to do is to complete one of the eleven Tax-and-Spend Game categories and fill out this form.

NOTE #1: All fields are required.

NOTE #2: I will not share your name with anyone and I won’t put you on my newsletter list unless you subscribe yourself on the subscription form on Support4Change Newsletter or on the blog’s Welcome page. This is just information I need for this one drawing, but if you don’t give me your correct email address I won’t be able to contact you if you win.

NOTE #3: You can enter as often as you like, but each entry must be for a different Tax-and-Spend Game category

Name:

Email Address:

Verify Email Address:

Name of the tax-and-spend category to which your answer below applies

Education National Security Protection Against Crime Protection Against Injury Physical and Mental Health Infrastructure Economic Stability and Job Growth Housing and Community Development Environmental Protection Cultural and Artistic Enrichment Foreign Aid

What government services and programs you now use are you willing to give up in order to help balance the budget? Why?

May I share your answer on the Support4Change blog or website? I will not give your name or email address.

Yes No

Hope you enjoy the Tax-and-Spend Game and learn something in the process. I’d love to hear what you think about it. Add a comment to this page or use the Contact Us form on Support4Change to send me your comments or ask a question.