Editor's note: Rep. Bradley Byrne (R-AL) coauthored this piece.
Today,
the House of Representatives will vote to fully repeal ObamaCare - the
first time that 58 of our newest Members will have a chance to go on the
record regarding the law and the first full repeal vote since
Republicans took control of the Senate.
Today's vote fulfills a key
commitment Republicans made to voters and is a result of the hard work
of Republican Study Committee (RSC) Members, who
pressed the House to act.
Between
now and April 15th, millions of Americans across the country will sit
down at their kitchen tables to begin the annual ritual of filing their
taxes . With records and receipts in hand, folks will hold their breath
as they calculate how much the Internal Revenue Service will dip into
their pockets.
The process has never been fun, but this year, thanks to
ObamaCare, taxpayers will face new and confusing requirements on top of
the already maze-like tax code.
ObamaCare is a mess of
penalties, fines, and confusing subsidies, and the IRS is ill-equipped
to fully deal with it. Yet when confronted with the law's shortcomings
and serious “glitches,” this Administration has simply cherry-picked
parts of the law to enforce while unilaterally delaying enforcement of
other parts of Obamacare. The uncertainty has paralyzed taxpayers and
small businesses who never know when their insurance premiums will
skyrocket or coverage will simply end. This is in addition to the
well-established fact that millions have lost plans they were promised
they could keep and have seen their working hours reduced as employers
struggle to comply with the law's complexities.
Unfortunately,
the only thing Americans can seem to count on under ObamaCare is a
higher tax bill.
The Treasury Department recently admitted that as many
as 6 million Americans will be forced to pay a penalty under the law's
individual mandate because they did not purchase health insurance.
Treasury also estimates that as many as 30 million more Americans will
try in vain to gain an exception to the law. And many families will
simply opt to pay the Obamacare penalty, because the one-size-fits-all
plans offered by the exchanges are simply unaffordable.
Americans
should not be forced to choose between higher taxes or higher
healthcare costs. Instead, we need real healthcare reform that puts
patients and doctors back in the driver's seat and creates free-market
competition to drive down costs. Last year, the RSC proposed healthcare
reform legislation that would do exactly that - and garnered more
support than any major healthcare reform package since the passage of
ObamaCare. This year, we are hard at work refining our plan to serve as a
competitive alternative to President Obama's failed big-government
solutions.
Today's repeal vote will be the first time
newly elected lawmakers can uphold an important promise they made to
voters. As members take that vote, it is an unmistakable reminder that
the priorities of America's new Congress are not dictated by special
interest groups. Instead, our priorities flow from conversations going
on around kitchen tables across the country.
See video 'Obamacare: So Good, President Obama Lies About it' here:
http://townhall.com/columnists/billflores/2015/02/03/by-rep-bill-flores-rtx-and-rep-bradley-byrne-ral-n1951757/page/full