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J.C. Watts
The continuing health care nightmare
We "have to pass the bill so you can find out what is in it," proclaimed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at the end of last spring's congressional health care debate. Indeed, Americans are rapidly witnessing just how much an ever-expanding federal government is siphoning away states' power and saddling them with new costs.
A first glimpse was seen with communications firm AT&T's $1 billion write down against earnings thanks to the tax changes buried in the new 2,300-page health care law. The Heritage Foundation calculates that is a full third of AT&T's $3 billion earnings for the fourth quarter of 2009.
Other write downs have occurred, and a major reason involves the new tax treatment of prescription drug benefits for retirees. Companies that currently deduct part of their costs for providing these benefits to retirees will no longer be able to do so. Roland McDevitt, director of health research at Towers Watson, estimates that just this tax change alone eliminates $14 billion in U.S. corporate profits. At a time when the national jobless rate hovers at almost 10 percent, this wholesale destruction of wealth and capital is a national tragedy toward unemployment.
ObamaCare not only limits doctor-patient choice, it will -- if not reversed -- eventually force private insurance companies out of business and put everyone under a government-run system.
An Aug. 5 Wall Street Journal editorial warns, "ObamaCare mandates that insurers spend a certain percentage of premium dollars on benefits, but Democrats never got around to writing the fine print of what counts as a benefit. So, a handful of regulators are now choosing among the tens of thousands of services that doctors, hospitals and insurers offer. Few government decisions will do more to shape tomorrow's health market, or what's left of it."
What will the government's final regulations be when they are issued this fall? Will the bureaucrats decide on a narrow definition of medical expenses? The insurance industry hopes not, and is rightfully lobbying for a less rigid standard. After all, as the Journal notes, it will be easier to run a business and turn a profit if more of the costs are considered truly medical in nature.
Critics were right to ask how President Obama and proponents said they wouldn't raise taxes on anyone making less than $250,000 a year, yet their bill included $20 billion in new taxes on medical devices (along with the aforementioned new costs regarding prescription drugs). Even the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office warns that these taxes will be passed along to patients.
The Medicaid program, Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum notes, could soon be eating up 36 percent of his state's budget -- and that's before ObamaCare's new costs kick in. Federal health, educational, environmental and labor mandates are chipping away at the states' ability to keep their taxes low, to expand jobs and to target money for their own priorities. So it is no wonder McCollum's counterparts in 19 other hard-pressed states joined him to file a constitutional lawsuit to get out of Obamacare. (It is also no wonder that more than 70 percent of the Missouri residents who turned out at the polls recently voted to annul the "individual mandate" within state lines -- the ObamaCare requirement that everyone buy insurance or else pay a tax.)
"The brazen nature of this administration is undermining the basic rule of law, the confidence of the public, and taking away states' authority -- creating an ever stronger federal government. My role is to make clear we're not going to put up with this," says McCollum about the lawsuit.
President Obama and the Democrats controlling Congress still refuse to admit that their budget-busting legislation, bullied through on a party-line vote, doesn't "lower costs." The president has been less than forthcoming because he never admitted that his real goal is the imposition of federal power over everything from doctors to health insurance.
The CBO confirmed the dishonesty when it concluded the other day that the new bureaucracy the health care legislation creates is so complex and indiscriminate that its size and cost is "currently unknowable." Incredible.
The defunding of this new health care bill by a new Congress next year, as well as driving a stake through its heart by its eventual rollback, cannot come fast enough.
J.C. Watts (JCWatts01@jcwatts.com) is chairman of J.C. Watts Companies, a business consulting group. He is former chairman of the Republican Conference of the U.S. House, where he served as an Oklahoma representative from 1995 to 2002.
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The man is totally on target. he was great at OU, great in Congress, and still right on in his thinking. DUMP ALL INCUMBENTS IN THE NEXT 3 ELECTIONS. Elect more Independents and eliminate the 2 party Stranglehold on America.
Steven: Please explain your foundation for Oklahoma being one of the "most racist states in the country." If not, please shut your pie hole. Please tell me which party gladly endorsed Jim Crow laws (hint--Donkey). Please tell me which party reinstated segregation of blacks and whites in goverment employment after 50 years of integration (Woodrow Wilson). Please tell me which party fought tooth and nail from 1957-1964 to keep the civil rights act from being passed (Sentate Majority Leader/President Lyndon Johnson).
How many more independent studies are going to be needed to PROVE to the Damnocrats that their "pet" project is 100% southern output of a north-facing bull? How many more businesses will have to cut spending, AND personnel, because the costs of this farce are just too much to handle?
Your racist steven. Democrats are hypocrites.
Anyone know how a black man from one of the most racist states in the country gets elected to office? Yep, that's right.
I fully agree that ObamaCare, as enacted, was and is most ill-advised; we simply cannot afford to let it become effective.
Even so, actually repealing all of it seems quite unrealistic. Briefly summarized, it seems inconceivable that the Republicans will gain enough seats to even pass such a bill, let alone override Mr. Obama's veto.
Enactment of specific corrective legislation--such as repeal of the percentage-of-premiums requirement--seems much more realistic. Ideally, the relevant bill(s) would be introduced by mid-September, in time for action to be taken prior to election day.
Democrats--such as Dina Titus--who had originally voted for Obamacare, but saw fit to reconsider and support the corrective legislation, should be seriously considered for re-election. (Harry Reid, due to his leadership role in supporting enactment, might be another matter entirely. Altho Mrs. Angle appears to be unqualified to serve, her election WOULD at least remove Mr. Reid from office).
Bill Sandford: I'm from the 9th District in Michigan. Are you for the repeal of the UNPAID FOR Medicare Part D that was ramrodded down our throat by GWB, Joe Knollenberg and the GOPs? Yeah, didn't think so, just another GOPocrit.
Writers usually use their best argument first when writing an opinion piece. The fact that J.C. Watts uses the cancellation of the counting of a tax credit as an expense and not income which IT IS and is something that ALL sides agree on shows me right from the start how baseless this attack will be.
On top of that, he criticizes this on the basis of cost and demands it repeal, but says nothing about the repeal of the UNPAID FOR FASCIST WELFARE MEDICARE PART D that HE VOTED FOR. It's unpaid for. It's unsustainable and was unsustainable the day he voted for it. If Obamacare robs us of our freedoms then Medicare Part D does too. They only thing worse than terrorism is hypocrisy.
I am supporting many Republicans, one for the local Congressional seat in Michigan; The one big condition I have requested... is that this House member (he's a shew-in) MUST support a REPEAL of obamacare, and support a new reform bill that meets fundamental needs.
No exceptions.
There is no question that The agenda of Obama and the Dems is to increase federal government control over all aspects of American life, not just medicine.
The Cap and Tax scheme, thankfully all but dead in the Senate, is a thinly disguised effort to gain control over America's energy supplies. The financial regulations overhaul gives the federal government tremendous control over financial institutions. The bailout of GM and Chrysler not only saw the Administration replace the CEO of GM, but to unfairly short Chrysler investors in favor of Democrat supporting unions. The FCC is attempting to gain control of the internet through the so-called "Net Neutrality Act", and many in the administration are joined by "progressives" in pushing for a return of the "Fairness Doctrine" in an effort to control the media. This should not be ignored or discounted.
As the power and control of the federal government grows, the power and control of the states and the people must necessarily be diminished. At this rate, we are headed towards becoming Venezuela.