You know you are in the silly season when the charges against sensible tax reform become more and more outrageous. The silliest and most outrageous is based on this causal reasoning: The Republican tax measure repeals the Obamacare mandate, requiring people to purchase health insurance; without the mandate, fewer people will insure; and without insurance, more people will die.
As the House and the Senate hash out their differences, it now appears that for the first time in 31 years, we are going to get major reform of our federal income tax system.
The feature of Obamacare that is least liked by the public is the individual mandate. Under current law, people are required to have health insurance. If they don’t, they can be fined.
On the surface, it would seem that Republicans and Democrats are so far apart that agreement on health policy is virtually impossible. Scratch the surface and you will find another reality.
Many agree the Affordable Care Act is in desperate need of reform. Some Texas families are paying more for their health insurance than they pay for their mortgages. They are also getting less access to care.
Three states – California, New York and Massachusetts — are receiving 37 percent of all Obamacare funds, according to a group of Republican senators.
From the middle of the 19th century until the 1970s, about every serious health reform in the United States was due to the efforts of organized medicine.
A plan to radically reform the US income tax system has been proposed by House Speaker Paul Ryan and House Ways & Means Chairman Kevin Brady. On the personal side, the system would become simpler, fairer and flatter.
Before the Senate voted on a “skinny” alternative to Obamacare, it was considering the House version of repeal and replace – called the Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA).
Paul Krugman is an editorial writer for the New York Times and a winner of the Nobel prize in economics. Yet more than any other economist in the country, he routinely discredits the very profession that has honored him.