Ryan The Weasel is trying to use the 'budget reconciliation' process to kill "3" birds with one stone.BDKJMU wrote:Yeah but if they had voted for the repeal bill prior and had publicly called for repeal (ie most Republicans) they would have been somewhat boxed in in having to vote for it again. Because if they didn't they would have been askedSkjellyfetti wrote:
In theory...
But, it's a lot different voting for a bill that you know will never be inacted because it would be vetoed... and, voting for a bill that you know is going to **** over a large % of your constituency.
Voting to repeal Obamacare 50 times when it has no chance of success is easy. Dealing with the consequences of actually governance is difficult.
"You voted for this exact same repeal bill several times before. Why did you vote against it now?"
It would be political suicide to respond with, "I voted for it before because I knew Obama would veto it. But now that I knew it would actually pass I voted against it."
A 'Repeal of Obamacare' requires actual legislation which, of course, would be filibustered in the Senate. Health care as designed by Trump/Ryan (whatever we call it) requires 3 steps (or 'buckets' as Ted Crooze calls them).
T-Ryan-Care is the bucket that blows the money up -- that's pretty much it. The rest of the current bill just nibbles around the edges. Ryan is stoning the 'block grants' and Medicare surcharge, and lessening that horrible burden on the billionaires in America.
The budget reconciliation process requires CBO review with the 10-year projection. I believe this is one of the few semi-legitimate holdovers from the 1990 Budget Control Act (which established Pay-Go).
Expense increases/reductions must reconcile with revenue increases/reductions. Sounds good, but is now toothless -- old Pay-Go rules had automatic triggers for expense cuts and tax increases. They expired in 2002 or so, and were not renewed.
Buh buh buh but ... whatever could the looters and special interests do?! Think of their jobs, man! How could they provide for their families? Who will pay for their Beluga caviar?OL FU wrote:Who cares? Now move on to not reforming the tax code
The Tax Break Data Base
Congress hated it so much, they eliminated its funding in 2013.
It was a publicly accessible data base with 5-year projections of 'Tax Expenditures' -broken-down by economic sector- prepared by the Treasury Department and the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT)
Total Tax Breaks By Fiscal Year
FY2014 . . . . . $1,210 billion
FY2015 . . . . . $1,320 billion
FY2016 . . . . . $1,430 billion
FY2017 . . . . . $1,530 billion
It's a crime, is what it is. And Congress is covering it up.
The typical 5-yr projections by both Treasury and JCT are historically 15-20% too low, too. You can compute 5-yr rolling averages with the data-sets since 2001 in excruciating detail. Uncle Sugar gives away as much in tax breaks each year as he collects in personal income tax. Oh, darn. The best gub'mint a lobbyist can buy.
AND mystically Congress 'Opaques The Tax Breaks' just in time for FY 2018 Tax Reform. Yippie!
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