Wrong, wrong, wrong! Although the ACA definitely does include new taxes (much of it on couples jointly filing on incomes of over $250,000 and healthcare providers themselves), it is by no means "the largest tax increase in the history of this country." According to the federal Joint Committee on Taxation, a nonpartisan committee of Congress with a professional staff of economists, attorneys and accountants, ACA contains tax increase provisions that will, by 2019, amount to .49% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). For those policy wonks who care, this figure doesn't even make the top ten tax increases over the past 70 years. According to an in-depth Treasury Department study conducted during the Bush Administration, the top ten tax increases look like this:
1. Revenue Act of 1942: 5.04 percent of GDP;
2. Revenue Act of 1961: 2.2 percent of GDP;
3. Current Tax Payment Act of 1943: 1.13 percent of GDP;
4. Revenue and Expenditure Control Act of 1968: 1.09 percent of GDP;
5. Excess Profits Tax of 1950: .97 percent of GDP;
6. Revenue and Expenditure Control Act of 1968: 1.09 percent of GDP;
7. Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982: .8 percent of GDP;
8: Crude Oil Windfall Profit Tax Act of 1980: .5 percent of GDP;
8: Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993; .5 percent of GDP;
10. Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990; .49 percent of GDP.
By this point in time, all but the most case-hardened of partisans can see that Congressional Republicans have opted to put politics well ahead of policy; the needs, wants, desires and marching orders of their financial backers over those of the unemployed and uninsured; and above all, victory in November over virtually any and everything else. While Republicans keep beating the drum of repeal, they, like millions of Americans, continue to benefit from those parts of the ACA which are already in effect -- like keeping children on their parents' policies until age 26 and not having to worry about pre-existing conditions.
All but lost in the tidal wave of rhetoric is a fascinating little factoid: if the ACA is not repealed, members of Congress and their staffs will forfeit their government-subsidized insurance coverage after they retire. Unbeknownst to many, the ACA included an amendment sponsored by Iowa Republican Senator Charles Grassley that essentially insured that members of Congress live by the same rules as their constituents; it forced lawmakers and staff to get coverage through the insurance exchanges created by the healthcare law . (Heretofore, members of Congress and their staffs bought insurance through the Federal Employees Health Benefit Program -- FEHBP -- which allowed them to keep their policies after they retired.) Grassley said that without his amendment, Congress would be sending "a message to grassroots America . . . that health care reform is good enough for you, but not for us." In other words, in addition to placing politics above policy and the needs and wishes of corporate America over those of the common clay, Republicans have now voted 33 times to restore a benefit denied to all but members of the political elite.
If at first you don't succeed, fail, fail, fail again . . . and live to reap the rewards.
What would Oscar Wilde call that?
-Kurt F. Stone
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