The hideous beast Democrats unleashed against an unwilling American public, ObamaCare, is dying.
Its death throes are slow, messy, and horribly expensive. Billions of dollars have been wasted, and countless people who deserved better have been made to suffer for Barack Obama’s ambitions. The whole scheme was a fraud from the beginning, its every major feature an act of deception. The sooner it’s dead and gone, the better off this country will be.
That’s why Republicans should strenuously resist Democrat efforts to surgically remove the “Cadillac Tax” from ObamaCare and put it on ice for a couple of years. No “fixes” to ObamaCare should be permitted – full repeal is the only answer, and Democrats must be forced to accept it. Until then, they and their union allies should be made to feel every second of the agony they deserve, without release or reprieve. It is sheer political madness for any Republican to intervene on their behalf, especially when so many of the GOP’s constituents are suffering from lost insurance plans, soaring premiums, exploding out-of-pocket costs, and lost access to their doctors.
Also, the Cadillac Tax – a hefty 40 percent tax on high-end health insurance plans – is supposed to be a major funding mechanism for ObamaCare, which has already lost quite a few of its income streams. Delaying it for years turns the Affordable Care Act into an even more expensive scam for hard-working taxpayers.
The Heritage Foundation notes that Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has been wailing that the Cadillac Tax wound up “falling on too many middle-class people, and we have to do something.”
In other words, Senator, you and your Party lied through your teeth about how ObamaCare would shower the Sainted Middle Class with benefits at virtually zero cost. Your ignorance and mendacity have inflicted incredible damage on the health insurance industry, and on the larger U.S. economy. We do have to do something, but you and your fellow con artists will be no part of it. What we’re going to do is repeal ObamaCare and work on real market-oriented health care reform, and not a Democrat hand will be allowed anywhere near the process, if the American people retain a shred of common sense.
How did Barack Obama put it, back at the beginning of his presidency? “I don’t want the folks that created the mess to do a lot of talking. I want them just to get out of the way so we can clean up the mess. I don’t mind cleaning up after them, but don’t do a lot of talking.”
The people who twisted American government and the Constitution out of shape to saddle us with ObamaCare should prepare for several years of not talking, while we try to fix the mess.
Of course, it’s never a safe bet to assume congressional Republicans will do the right thing.
Some of them are working on a deal to delay the Cadillac Tax, because they need leverage to get Democrat support for extending a number of tax breaks. Also, the GOP’s corporate donors hate the Cadillac Tax. The proper way to address their concern is full repeal, not yet another emergency repair to keep ObamaCare creaking and farting along for a few more years… as part of yet another last-minute Yuletide panic deal to keep the government running.
Why are we allowing the most expensive government in history to be run like a fly-by-night operation? We shouldn’t be cutting desperate deals for “tax extenders” to save the economy from the impact of tax breaks ending abruptly, or making arrangements to temporarily delay painful blunders like the Cadillac Tax for an election or two. We should have a reasoned and honest discussion about financing the government, and design transparent, stable systems with fewer special exemptions and short-term sweeteners. The budget-by-crisis approach we’ve been allowing the political class to take throughout the Obama presidency allows both parties to slip far too much past the voters.
Ambiguous and temporary laws give politicians too many carrots and sticks to control us.
Instead of low, simple, permanent tax rates, we get an insanely confusing mass of self-destructing exemptions that give politicians plenty of chips to put on the table during midnight poker sessions with special interests. Why lower taxes for everyone, for good, when you can shake big-money interests down every few years, to renew temporary exceptions?
The objective of our government should be handling a carefully-defined list of duties as efficiently as possible, financed rationally with the lightest, simplest, most evenly-distributed tax burden. Simplicity and transparency dilute power, so we’ll never have those virtues from our political class unless we firmly insist upon them. Step One is getting rid of ObamaCare lock, stock, and barrel – no temporary reprieves for special interests, no backroom deals, and no quick relief for political pain.