Editor's Note: Most of Monday’s American Morning audience was unconcerned about increased middle class taxes to pay for universal health care.

• Michael: I spend between $7,000 and $8,000 per year for family health insurance. I would rather give that money to the Federal Government via higher taxes than a private company whose only interest is making money for their stock holders. My guess is that my tax increase will be a lot less than what I pay for my private insurance...... it's a no brainer!!
• Linda R.: Let's stop scaring the public with the "tax bogeyman". If you took a truly honest poll, most Americans would not mind paying a few cents more in taxes if it meant access to health care, and a better life in general. Also, let's not forget, that it was the Republican party, not president Obama, that got us into this mess in the first place. Unfortunately, we have a "corporate mentality" which translates into the power of terrifying the public into voting against their own interests in order to serve the powerful. The MSM is guilty of aiding these crooks by advancing their agenda. If we had a single-payer health care plan, all that lovely money doled out to greedy politicians by the private health care providers would dry up. At the minimum, a public option would help enormously, but the rich and powerful could care less about ordinary Americans. If McCain had managed to eke out a victory last November, (heaven forbid), we would already have bread lines, runs on the banks, and people selling apples in the street. Oh yes, and Iran would already be a pile of rubble (think "shock and awe II"). Give our new president a chance to turn this mess around. He's not "Merlin the Magician". We are in a much better place than we were under Bush/Cheney, and you know it.

How do you feel about paying higher taxes for universal health care? Would you, as the first viewer noted, prefer to pay the government over a for-profit institution?

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