If you want to discover how Obamacare became deeply flawed, take a look at the tax plan being cobbled together by Republicans in Congress.
Donald Trump ran for president promising tax reform. Most conservatives have supported making the tax code simpler for common folks to understand. It is a core belief of the Republican Party that tax reform is needed to stimulate economic growth, create jobs and generate greater wealth for Americans.
OPINION
But the bills being talked about in Washington, D.C. today (there’s a House version and a Senate version) are not simple. They are so complicated that even elected officials who support the notion of tax reform can’t explain what’s happening.
The plan is being rushed through Congress before Christmas without public hearings to avoid a public backlash. Even Obamacare had public hearings, despite the fact that only Democrats would eventually support the legislation.
There is general agreement that any final tax bill will be pasted together in a reconciliation process by GOP senators and congressmen behind closed doors.
Wasn’t this supposed to be simple?
The problem is nothing is simple when you’re talking about getting important legislation passed in Congress. Republicans opposed national health care reform so Democrats had to do it on their own and President Obama realized early on that many members of his own party weren’t on board with single-payer national health insurance.
Single-payer is true national health care, often called Medicare for all.
To fulfill his campaign promise, Obama created a national health care plan that checked off key points when it came to reform. Insurance companies could no longer deny coverage to people who had pre-existing conditions.
It eliminated lifetime dollar limits on coverage.
Obamacare created a system of health insurance exchanges that initially made it affordable for people to purchase health care.
It expanded Medicaid coverage to millions of poor Americans.
Unfortunately, despite its good intentions and actual achievements, Obamacare lacked adequate funding and relied heavily on the private insurance industry, which is a for-profit enterprise.
It was implied that Obamacare was merely a first step and that there would be fixes in years to come to make it work.
The same thing is happening now with federal tax reform.
Whatever creation comes out of Congress, this is a bill generated to appease the Republicans core constituency. It’s something to say, “We fulfilled our campaign promise.”
By all accounts, this tax bill is going to generate more than a trillion dollars in new debt, piled onto the existing national debt which jeopardizes the future of Medicare and Social Security. Republicans used to care about that sort of thing, just like Democrats cared about universal health insurance.
But idealism is the first casualty when it comes to passing legislation in Congress.
The wealthiest Americans will benefit the most from any tax reform plan. That’s expected. Just as Democrats helped the poor by making everyone pay for their health care, the Republicans are looking out for their core constituency.
The ability of Illinois residents to deduct their local property payments and state income taxes on federal tax forms could be eliminated. Funding for Obamacare will likely be cut. Deductions for college students may be eliminated.
Something has to give or the national debt would climb to levels even Republican defenders of tax reform would find unacceptable.
Most polling data indicates a majority of Americans don’t like this tax reform plan. Obamacare became so unpopular that repeal became the rallying cry of Republican candidates in 2016.
Now we’re stuck paying for a program that is falling apart and inadequate, but too popular for politicians to eliminate and almost impossible to fix.
Compromise too often results in giving up what you want most for what you can get now.
Email: philkadner@gmail.com
