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With IRS Scandal, Should We Delay Implementation of Obamacare?

obamacare-cartoon-2-a

Back in 2009, Obama gave a speech at Arizona State University and joked about using the IRS to audit unsavory people. In a jolting forecast nearly four years ago, Glenn Reynolds wrote a response in the WSJ, saying,

“Should the IRS come to be seen as just a bunch of enforcers for whoever is in political power, the result would be an enormous loss of legitimacy for the tax system”.

As the IRS problems continue to unfold, it’s pretty clear that confidence from all sides is low right now.

With that in mind, one question should definitely be discussed: Should we delay the implementation of Obamacare? Obamacare is designed to be enforced by….the IRS.

Last week, CNBC explained how this will work:

“Get ready for the Internal Revenue Service to play a dominant role in health care. When Obamacare takes full effect next year, the agency will enforce most of the laws involved in the reform — even deciding who gets included in the health-care mandate.”

and further:

“In its 5-4 ruling last year, the Supreme Court upheld the law’s mandate that Americans have health insurance, saying that Congress can enforce the mandate under its taxing authority and through the IRS.

As a result, the agency has to administer 47 tax provisions under Obamacare. They include the right to levy a penalty against businesses and individuals who don’t provide or acquire insurance. Noting that the IRS will collect the penalties, the decision labeled them a tax.

The IRS also has to determine how to distribute annual subsidies to 18 million people who make less than $45,000 a year and thus qualify for subsidies in buying health coverage, as well as how to deliver tax credits to small businesses that buy coverage for workers”.

Obviously we currently have incompetency, partisanship, and trust issues in the IRS. And don’t forget about financial — IRS head Shulman asked for more money (prior to leaving in November 2012) in order to handle Obamacare in 2014. And on top of it all, the head of the IRS, Steven Miller, resigned yesterday.

At this point, the targeting has swelled to 500. Can the IRS be trusted anymore in implement Obamacare in a fair and just manner?

UPDATE:….and the concern is now very real, folks. The Internal Revenue Service official in charge of the tax-exempt organizations at the time when the unit targeted tea party groups now runs the IRS office responsible for the health care legislation.

Sarah Hall Ingram served as commissioner of the office responsible for tax-exempt organizations between 2009 and 2012. But Ingram has since left that part of the IRS and is now the director of the IRS’ Affordable Care Act office. This was confirmed today by the IRS.

Obamacare Is A Tax


I was talking to a small business owner the other day. He said it made more sense to “to pay a $2,000 fine than buy $6,000 insurance policy” (per employee, of course).

But there is no “fine”. It’s a “tax”. Employers who do not provide the one-size-fits-all, government-approved insurance demanded by Obamacare are taxed. And we know it’s a tax because the Supreme Court said so–in fact, if it isn’t a tax, if there is any hint that not purchasing insurance was bad behavior, Obamacare is unconstitutional.

Conservatives, people of integrity should take care to describe this payment to the government accurately: it is a tax on perfectly legal and moral behavior, not a fine for bad behavior. When you hear someone refer to the payment as a fine or hear them denigrate a business who opts to pay the tax rather than purchase insurance, be sure to remind them what the Supreme Court said.

Schwartz: Don’t Forget About Obamacare


I’ve written several articles regarding the folly of Obamacare. This morning, I read a great piece on the need to keep ObamaCare and its impact at the forefront of our discussions .

The full implementation of the Affordable Care Act needs to be a major discussion in the coming months and years, especially in 2014 when every Democratic senator elected in 2008 on the coat-tails of Barack Obama may be branded as the deciding vote to corporatize — with government sanction and force — the mandatory use of seventeen hundredths of private property.

and this:

No, we cannot forget about Obamacare. When our expectation is to have the finest product available, at the expense of another person’s property; and when life is that product, it is impossible — by the laws of economics and the laws of logic — for our nation ever to maintain its prosperity. We will create a stagnant mediocrity, grant to a faceless human authority the power to determine how much life and quality of life is “acceptable,” and elevate our dependence on that authority until property is void, liberty is nostalgia, and self-propriety — i.e., life — is nothing more than a pluralistic determination of worth.

I urge you to read the article in its entirety.

March 23, 1775

On this two year anniversary of ObamaCare, we must remember a greater anniversary, the sage words spoken 237 years ago today.

It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace– but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!

This begs the question. If ObamaCare was such a monumental piece of legislation as the White House claims, why no mention in the news today?

Fuzzy Math: CBO Ups ObamaCare Costs

New estimates released from the CBO suggest that ObamaCare will cost at least $1.76 TRILLION over ten years — up from the $900 Billion touted by Obama.

Democrats employed many accounting tricks when they were pushing through the national health care legislation, the most egregious of which was to delay full implementation of the law until 2014, so it would appear cheaper under the CBO’s standard ten-year budget window and, at least on paper, meet Obama’s pledge that the legislation would cost “around $900 billion over 10 years.” When the final CBO score came out before passage, critics noted that the true 10 year cost would be far higher than advertised once projections accounted for full implementation.

By this time next year, we’ll have the full ten years (2014 – 2023) time frame to get the truest estimate of cost, which is likely to exceed $2 trillion.

Philip Klein, the Washington Examiner correspondent who covered the above information, also released a corollary article that discusses the impact of employer health-care changes and the rising number of Medicare recipients on ObamaCare costs and coverage.  And for those who love raw date, the entire CBO report can be accessed here.

$2 Trillion is far, far different then $900 billion.  No wonder HHS Secretary Sebelius claimed during testimony that she has no idea if ObamaCare will add to the deficit. The Supreme Court case at the end of this month will be worthwhile keeping an eye on. Hopefully they’ll overturn this monstrosity of a bill and safeguard the American people.