It was three years ago this WEEKEND that President Obama signed a law that fundamentally changed our nation’s healthcare system. While reform was needed, change is only good if it brings with it real reforms that reduce costs and empower individuals and small-business owners in making healthcare choices for themselves, their employees and their families. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) does neither of those things. Three years later, the law is not living up to its moniker.
Report after report has established that the only changes that have materialized under the ACA are, in fact, the opposite of what small-business owners have been demanding for decades. The law has increased costs and added profound complexity to an already confusing system; higher taxes and thousands of pages of new regulations are having a tremendous impact on the small-business community and have contributed to the slow recovery of Main Street.
Leading, nonpartisan budget and tax authorities, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT), have confirmed that the Obamacare will levy over a TRILLION DOLLARS in taxes on an unsuspecting public. Families and small employers cannot afford this. Nor can they afford the 21 TAX INCREASES contained in the law-half of which will impact families and business owners earning less than $250,000 a year ($200k for individual filers). Not only does this violate the President’s pledge to avoid tax hikes on low- and middle-income taxpayers, it breaks trust with a community of job creators – most of whom file as individuals.