The American Spectator : The Gift That Keeps on Taking

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The Gift That Keeps on Taking

By David Hogberg on 12.21.11 @ 6:04AM

Obamacare is primed for defeat — or else it defeats us.

If you need a last minute gift for that health-care policy wonk on your Christmas list, you cannot go wrong with Why ObamaCare Is Wrong for America by Grace-Marie Turner, James C. Capretta, Thomas P. Miller, and Robert E. Moffit. The book is written in such a lucid, down-to-earth style that it makes an excellent gift even for the person who is only marginally interested in health care.

Turner, Capretta, Miller, and Moffit were vigorous participants in the debate over Obamacare, and had the powers that be listened to them we wouldn’t be facing the burgeoning mess that we are. As Obamacare inevitably results in one disaster after another, having Why ObamaCare Is Wrong for America on your bookshelf will serve as an excellent reference for understanding why the disasters unfold the way they do.

While the whole book is well worth reading, two chapters stand out.

The first is “Impact on…Taxpayers,” which recounts not only how Obamacare will burden taxpayers but also the accounting ruses used to give the appearance that it won’t bust the budget. There are at least two cases in Obamacare of “bracket creep,” where inflation pushes incomes into higher tax brackets. Starting in 2018, Obamacare levies a tax on “Cadillac” health plans costing over $18,000 annually. While the tax is adjusted each year for inflation, health insurance almost always rises at a rate higher than inflation, meaning that over time more and more families will see their health plans subject to the tax. The second is a surtax on annual incomes for individuals making over $200,000 annually and $250,000 for families. The surtax amounts to 0.9% on wages and 3.8% on non-wage income. Yet the tax rate is not adjusted for inflation, so each year more and more taxpayers will be ensnared by it.

But those are only the taxes that are actually in the law. As the authors note:

ObamaCare is going to push government spending up even more than [the] best-case scenario numbers show, and the result will be to force even higher taxes on future generations of Americans. That becomes clear only when all of the gimmicks and unlikely assumptions that are hiding ObamaCare’s true costs are stripped away.

The first gimmick entailed keeping the “10-year cost” of Obamacare to about $1 trillion. To achieve this, the law contained 10 years of taxes with six-years of costs. That is, while the taxes for Obamacare began in 2010, the cost of supplying subsidies for insurance does not begin until 2014. It was this dishonesty that enabled supporters of the law to espouse the canard that it reduced the deficit by $118 billion. The truth is the first 10 years of supplying insurance subsidies, 2014-2023, will leave taxpayers with a $2.3 trillion bill.

Another gimmick is “double counting.” Obamacare does this at least twice. It cuts Medicare benefits about $450 billion over a decade to help pay for the insurance subsidies. But the Obama administration and Democrats also claimed that the savings would replenish the Medicare trust fund. That proved too much even for a Congressional Budget Office that, at the time, was in a Congress still controlled by Democrats. In a December 2009 report, the CBO “let it be known that the Medicare cuts couldn’t be double-counted. Either they will pay for a new entitlement, or they will shore up Medicare. But not both.”

Obamacare pulled the same trick with the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports program, aka the “CLASS Act.” The CLASS Act was intended to be a program that provided long-term care insurance. It was supposed to collect $70 billion in premiums before any benefits were paid out. But “ObamaCare’s authors could not resist the temptation to double dip. They set aside the premiums to pay for long-term care insurance claims, but they also counted the premiums to pay for ObamacCare’s overall insurance expansion.” In the end, there will be no $70 billion for either purpose. The CLASS Act proved to be such a Ponzi scheme that Obama’s Department of Health and Human Services eventually admitted that there was no way to make the program work.

The chapter “What You Can Do to Put the Brakes on ObamaCare” provides citizens with useful tools to keep the debate going into the 2012 election. President Obama and the Democrats will hope that Obamacare drops off the political radar next year. The chapter offers ways that people who are not politicians or pundits can prevent that from happening, such as calling in to talk-radio programs, writing letters to the editor, or starting a Facebook page dedicated to discussing the problems of Obamacare. And for the very ambitious, the chapter urges you to consider running for office. Of course, you can’t go into the debate unarmed, so the chapter offers ten basic facts about Obamacare that you can memorize.

And if you need more, well, that’s what the rest of the book is for.

About the Author

David Hogberg is a senior fellow at the National Center for Public Policy Research. Follow him on Twitter.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (11) | Leave a comment Leave a comment

Robbins Mitchell| 12.21.11 @ 6:07AM

So in other words the whole thing is nothing but a cheap Chicago ghetto street corner hustle...as if we should have expected anything else

Kitty| 12.21.11 @ 6:38AM

A brain surgeon calls into Mark Levin's show to discuss ObamaCare. He said patients are referred to as "units."

http://www.therightscoop.com/s.....th-panels/

Michael Tomlinson| 12.21.11 @ 8:00AM

Repeal and replace. But we need a veto proof Republican Congress (just for good measure) and a Republican President with the cajones to do the right thing (Perry) and to hell with the Democrat media and wanting to be loved by the DC crowd.

TrueBlue| 12.21.11 @ 3:14PM

Therein lies the problem. Members of Congress haven't been running for office for the good of the country for a very long time. Now they're just in it for themselves, to keep their jobs. Until we get people who are willing to accept they may not be re-elected if they do what they SHOULD do nothing will change.

Dave | 12.21.11 @ 9:47AM

A few days ago, I came across a thought provoking comment regarding the soon-to-arrive Obamacare health plan. It highlighted some facts and ended with a retorical question that still hasn't been fully addressed. At least by the D.C. politicians who helped promote it.

"Let me get this straight: We're going to be gifted with a healthcare plan we're forced to buy and fined if we don't, which claims to cover at least ten million more people without adding a single new doctor but provides for 16,000 new IRS agents, written by a committee who's chairman says he doesn't understand it, passed a Congress that didn't read it but exempts themselves from it, and signed by a president who smokes, with funding administered by a treasury chief who didn't pay his OWN taxes, for which we'll be taxed for four years before any benefits take effect, by a government which has already bankrupted Social Security, Medicare, all to be overseen by a surgeon general who is obese and financed by a country that's broke! What could possible go wrong?"

Just to be clear, the above quote isn't something I dreamed up. It's being credited to Donald Trump. Or as he's known by the first Mrs.T: The Donald. Actually, no one's really sure who said it because it came in one of those e-mail links that gets passed around the web all day. Having said that, the comment still has long legs of its own. As a matter of fact, it stands the test of a classic rule in comedy writing: "In order for a bit to work, there has to be a grain of truth running through the premise." In this case, the truth grain isn't just running through the premise, it's stampeding. Regardless, though, of whether Donald Trump or Donald Duck gets attribution, the slowly emerging facts on Obamacare's impact are now sitting before us -- sans pants. And it ain't pretty.

If little else, history has shown that when dealing with an unyielding monopoly, or in this case an expanding federal government, too often it's like negotiating with a gang of GoodFella's: "So, Pauley, you sayin' you had a slow month? You sayin' you don't got my money? Scr-w you. PAY ME!"

Bah-da-bing! And speaking of mandates ...

The ruling several weeks ago by the 11th District Court of Appeals was encouraging good news for constitutionalists and proponents of minimal government intrusion. To refresh your memory, the court found the mandate portion the administration's ACA to be unconstitutional with regard to its enforcement under the commerce clause. However, the final resolution will, in all probabilty, be made by the U.S. Supreme Court next year. And that's when the fingernails become shorter. It's pretty much a forgone conclusion their decision will be split, with Justice Anthony Kennedy holding the deciding gavel. The only question is, which way will he go? Judging from past decisions, he's been like Bob Dylan's -- Blowin' In The Wind. So, which way is he going to blow on this one? Although not a card carrying conservative, Mr. Kennedy was appointed to the bench by Ronald Reagan, which is probably why President Obama arranged reserved seating for the premire of "Butch Kagen and The Sundance Sotomayor."

At day's end, after the lawyers are heard and the nine Supremes tally-up their scorecards, if Mr. Kennedy ends up going non-constitutional with his ruling, the only question remaining will be - what's a tub of popcorn at the midtown MetroPlex going to end-up costing? Unless it's fat, sodium and taste free, there'll probably be a hefty fine involved. Maybe some community service, too.

As things stand now, not many in official Washington seem willing to offer a personal opinion or even speak on-the-record. And while he's usually good for a fresh quote or two, reporters tried contracting Vice President Biden's office to find out what his thoughts on the outcome were. Unfortunatley, Mr. Biden was busy engaging his foot with his mouth, and unavailable for comment.

We'll keep you posted.

on deathrow| 12.21.11 @ 9:51AM

I'm 67 years old. My Dr. a general practioner has quit his private practice, and now works for a hospital. Thanks a rot obumma. I can think of at least 25 ways to better health care other than raise prices, scare the elderly half to death, make healthcare more complicated, and generally just piss everyone off, by craming something down everyones throat that they didn't want. Hope we can rid ourselves of this artifical, immitation, counterfit and get a real president soon. OHhh...Whats the diffrence between Obomba and God??? Give up?... God knows he's not President. Oh yea... I still haven't found another doctor, most aren't taking new patients or won't take medicare.....

Mike 3/505| 12.21.11 @ 10:28AM

shipley130| 12.21.11 @ 6:01PM

Why aren't politicians held responsible for fiscal disasters they were responsible for implementing? If people at a private company cause disasters, they are held responsible even when they are no longer at the company.

Crawler| 12.22.11 @ 10:05AM

I knew Obamacare Health Control was nothing but more government intrusion in American lives and unconstitutional nonsense from the beginning. Look how it came to fruition: Lies, lies, closed door meetings, kickbacks, payolas, more lies, more lies, et cetera, et cetera...

I'd like to read the book, Mr. Hogberg, but I'm not sure it would be good for my blood pressure.

Vasu Murti | 12.24.11 @ 3:28PM

(The folk song below receives airplay on KFOG 104.5 here in the SF Bay Area during the holiday season.)

"Well, Jesus was a homeless lad
"With an unwed mother and an absent dad
"And I really don't think he would have gotten that far
"If Newt, Pat and Jesse had followed that star