One Year After SCOTUS Ruled Obamacare A Tax, Implementation Of The Law Is Turning Into A Disaster

Today in Washington, D.C. - June 28, 2013
The Senate reconvened for a pro forma session at 12:15 PM today and will return for legislative business on Monday, July 8th. Yesterday, as previously reported, the Senate passed S. 744 (68-32) — the 1200 page immigration reform bill.

The House convened at 9:00 AM and continued debate on and then passed H.R. 2231(235-186) — "To amend the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to increase energy exploration and production on the Outer Continental Shelf, provide for equitable revenue sharing for all coastal States, implement the reorganization of the functions of the former Minerals Management Service into distinct and separate agencies, and for other purposes." The House then adjourned until 2 PM on Monday, July 8th.

Yesterday the House passed:
H.R. 1613 (256-171)— "To amend the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to provide for the proper Federal management and oversight of transboundary hydrocarbon reservoirs, and for other purposes."
H.R. 1864 (423-0)— "To amend title 10, United States Code, to require an Inspector General investigation of allegations of retaliatory personnel actions taken in response to making protected communications regarding sexual assault."

This morning, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) blasted the Senate Democrats for adjourning for a week-long recess without having passed any legislation to stop the student loan interest rates, which are set to double July 1st: "Millions of American students and their families are about to pay the price for the stubbornness and partisanship of Senate Democratic leaders. It is stunning that Senate Democrats would leave town having done nothing to prevent interest rates on college loans from doubling. Earlier this year, the president called for a market-based interest rate for student loans. House Republicans responded by passing one. Senate Democrats responded with scorn and inaction. The inability of the president and leaders of his party in Congress to come together will now mean higher borrowing costs for students already coping with skyrocketing tuition bills. This Democratic infighting is exactly why we have to take politics out of student loans and put in place a permanent solution. The president must urge his fellow Democrats to pass a market-based solution as soon as they return so that we can right this wrong and give our kids a better shot at the American dream."

By William Warren

It’s been one year since the Supreme Court unfortunately decided that the individual mandate in Obamacare was constitutional by considering it a tax. But, as Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said at the time, “We pass plenty of terrible laws around here that the court finds constitutional. Constitutionality was never an argument to keep this law in place, and it’s certainly not one you’ll hear from Republicans in Congress. There’s only one way to truly ‘fix’ Obamacare, and that’s a full repeal that clears the way for common-sense, step-by-step reforms that protect Americans’ access to the care they need, from the doctor they choose, at a lower cost. And that’s precisely what Republicans are committed to doing. The American people weren’t waiting on the Supreme Court to tell them whether they supported this law. . . . The more the American people have learned about this law, the less they’ve liked it.”

Indeed, just yesterday a new Gallup poll found a majority disapprove of the president’s health care law. Not only that, “Americans are more negative than positive about the healthcare law's future impact on their family and on the U.S. in general. Forty-two percent say that in the long run, the law will make their family's healthcare situation worse . . . . And almost half believe the law will make the healthcare situation in the U.S. worse . . . .” Earlier this month, a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll found that “Americans' unease with President Barack Obama's health-care law has intensified, just as the administration is gearing up to persuade people to sign up for some of its major provisions . . . .” And “the number calling it a bad idea reached a high of 49%,” just as the administration ramps up implementation of the law.

Make no mistake: implementation of Obamacare is hurting Americans across the country. Yesterday featured stories out of Toledo, Ohio of lost hours and squeezed budgets and Terre Haute, Indiana of lost hours and lost bonuses, all because of the mandates and regulations in Obamacare that drive up costs for employers. Today comes news from Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley, where The [Allentown] Morning Call reports, “Eleven East Penn School District food service employees will have their hours cut to 29.75 hours a week – just 15 minutes shy of the 30-hours-a-week that triggers the mandate that employers provide health benefits under Obamacare. A representative of the Foodcrafters union said the reduction in hours was to avoid the health care requirement. ‘We didn't like it but everybody's doing it,’ said Karen Haldeman, secretary of the East Penn School District Foodcrafters Association. ‘All the school districts are doing it, private companies are doing it. We knew we had to just accept it and go on.’ . . . Cash-strapped districts across the Lehigh Valley are weighing what to do with their part-timers. Earlier this month, Southern Lehigh School District reduced the hours of 51 part-timers to avoid a bigger health-care bill. . . . ‘The school district said they didn't want to cut our hours but they were stuck because of the law,’ Haldeman said.”

Meanwhile, confusion about the other requirements spelled out by the 2,700 page law and the over 20,000 pages of regulations it’s spawned continues. According to Gallup, “With roughly six months to go before Americans are required to carry health insurance, slightly more than half of the uninsured population is aware of that requirement.” Only 43% of those without insurance are aware of the requirement that they must purchase it or face a fine.

And then there are the people that the Obama administration needs to buy insurance for its health exchanges to avoid collapse. CNBC wrote earlier this week, “Young adults make up a disproportionate share of the nation's 50 million uninsured. Getting them to sign up for insurance coverage will be a major focus of the government this fall during the roll-out of the Affordable Care Act, or ACA, also known as Obamacare. . . . But there's still a big question about whether young adults will enroll, or just opt to pay the penalty, which for the first year could be as little as $95. ‘It's that age bracket that feels like they don't really need coverage, so they can get away with not paying that cost right now,’ said Kristie Arslan, president & CEO of the National Association of Self-Employed (NASE). . . . ‘If they don't get the ratio that they need in the state-based exchanges, it's going to be like high-risk pools,’ she said. ‘They're going to be very unaffordable, because you'll have all sick people and no healthy people.’”

As Leader McConnell said last week, “A few months back, one of our Democrat colleagues warned of a ‘huge train wreck’ on the horizon–the implementation of Obamacare. . . . Most of the law’s key provisions haven’t even been implemented yet. Not a single American has signed up for an exchange. And already, it’s turning into a mess. Well, it wasn’t hard to see this coming. We’re talking about a 2,700-page piece of legislation here. We’re talking about a law that has already generated more than 20,000 pages of regulations—a Red Tape Tower. And we’re talking about an edict that proposes to alter one of the most personal, most private aspects of our lives in a fundamental way. . . . And it can’t be done without the people the government is attempting to regulate – doctors, hospitals, states, small businesses, hundreds of millions of Americans – actually having a clue of how to comply. And many of them don’t, because the law is just so maddeningly complex. So, of course Obamacare is going to be a mess. We said it would be. It already is.”

That, of course, is why it still needs to be repealed and replaced.

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