Here's a hint how the UK does it...and there's more that I haven't listed, but wanted to give you an idea on how UK finances their healthcare...and yet they're still in some very serious debt. You may run your house like that, but I sure don't. If our economy plunges, it would have a serious ripple effect around the world, and surely we would be off the US dollar standards, probably use china's currency.I get it, Conservative dogma dictates Government=Bad. I just don't see it. Universal Health Care is part of so many developed and civilized nations, and has been for so long that I know it's not just the end of society like rhetoric would claim otherwise.
No, it's not perfect, but what in this world is? The bottom line is that Britain has had socialized medicine in some form or another since like 1918 or something. And they're still standing. Yes, there are bad aspects of the NHS, but it has functioned and provided vital health care to millions of Britons, and that's a bad thing how?
UK VAT = 20%
Income Tax
0 - £2,560 10 per cent (starting rate for savings only)
0 - £35,000 20 per cent (basic rate)
£35,001 - £150,000 40 per cent (higher rate)
Over £150,000 50 per cent (additional rate)
Income tax rates
TV license per year
A colour television licence is £116 a year (around $192 US)
Gas Tax
Sixty per cent of the price of unleaded petrol
Read more: Fuel tax: British motorists pay up to 60% duty and VAT on petrol | Mail Online
UN debt
£1,003.9bn.....64.2% of GDP for roughly 62 million people
Yet, with all that, England has been doing just fine for decades, with some normal bumps here and there. Yes, they took a big hit in '08 like we did too, but I don't really see any big red flags in those numbers you posted. Remember, I'm a Liberal; taxes aren't scary tools of the devil to me.
We will never see eye to eye on this CD. It scares the hell out of me.