Republicans on Capitol Hill are pulling out all the stops to repeal President Barack Obama’s health care law, even after the Supreme Court declared the legislation constitutional.
This week in the House of Representatives, GOP leaders are behind a full court press to repeal “Obamacare.”
In one day alone, three separate hearings explored how the health reforms will affect doctors and patients as well as the economy, jobs and, ultimately, taxpayers.
Last month’s Supreme Court ruling allowed the individual mandate to stand based on the grounds that it’s a tax, which Congress has the power to levy.
“By this reasoning, it can now tax speech it finds offensive, tax people who chose not to go to church or people who do, tax people who own guns or people who don’t,” claimed Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif.
There’s still more than two years before Americans will have to provide proof of health insurance on their tax returns.
But the central question for skeptics now is whether the Internal Revenue Service can do its current job collecting taxes and manage the mandate for the entire country.
The law currently states taxpayers cannot be criminally prosecuted or subject to a penalty just for failing to buy insurance.
But some Republicans wonder whether a future Congress could strip that part of the law.
“Could the IRS then be empowered to fine individuals who do not buy government-approved insurance, seize their property and even put them in jail if they don’t pay the new individual mandate tax?” Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., asked during a recent hearing.
“If it’s a constitutional tax, as the court has said, Congress can use all of its enforcement powers,” Dechert LLP attorney Steven Bradbury explained.
The law says the IRS can’t seize bank accounts or dock wages to collect the fines. It can only withhold tax refunds.
Still, opponents believe that thousands of additional IRS agents will be needed to enforce the health care law.
This week’s efforts will end with a full floor vote to repeal the law. Democrats call it a waste of time.
“Thirty-one attempts tying up the floor of the House. One’s enough. We already did it the first or second day we were here,” said Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore.
Although the White House has issued a veto threat, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is pushing for a similar vote on his side of the Hill.
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