Chaos, ignorance, propaganda and fraud rule the tax reform effort

“Wouldn’t it be great to Repeal the very unfair and unpopular Individual Mandate in ObamaCare and use those savings for further tax cuts…for the Middle Class. The House and Senate should consider ASAP as the process of final approval moves along. Push Biggest Tax Cuts EVER,”

There is so much wrong with this latest statement by the President that it is difficult to know where to begin. If ever there was evidence of governance by ignorance and lies, this president’s absurd push in last-minute tax policy change is it.

First, if you repeal the mandate tax then government has LESS money to use for other tax cuts. This is Economics 101. The statement here that indicates that our chief executive does not understand the difference between a debit and a credit in public tax policy is appalling.

Second, repealing the individual mandate without addressing other health care law problems would cause health insurance chaos for tens of millions of Americans. We’ve been there before. Anyone who remembers the suffering and scandal causes by the private insurance markets pre-2010 does not want to go back to that no matter how much you despise Obamacare. The president indicates that he does not understand this most basic insurance principle that allows almost 20 million Americans to have health insurance coverage in force today.

Third, “final approval” is as far from a description of where we are in the tax reform process as one could possibly imagine.

Fourth, “Biggest Tax Cuts EVER” is such a huge lie that I wonder what legal boundaries if any exist for politicians who promote fraud on the American people.

Here we are at the eleventh hour of a federal tax reform bill that has been more than a decade in the making. Yesterday we learned that party leaders can’t even agree on the goals of the reform or the major parts of the bill. Now, hours before planned introduction of the tax reform bill the president weighs in on an issue that is best described in sports lingo as “out in left field”.

Good grief. Well, there is one positive thing: these Republicans will keep me fully employed in my role as compensation and benefits planning adviser for the foreseeable future.