Weekly Review
September 17, 2016

September 13:

$33 Billion Obamacare Tax: Earlier today, the House voted on a couple of different bills, and accordingly, I wanted to highlight one that I thought had a little more significance than the others: the Halt Tax Increases on the Middle Class and Seniors Act, which would repeal a $33 billion tax increase put into place by Obamacare. I voted yes, and the bill passed 261 to 147.

To get into a little more detail, prior to Obamacare, Americans could deduct all out-of-pocket medical expenses that exceeded 7.5% of their income. Because of Obamacare, that threshold for seniors will go up to 10% on January 2017. This would mean Americans would have to spend even more of their income before being able to qualify for a tax deduction. To give a rough example, if a senior makes $10,000 in income and has $1,000 dollars in medical expenses, before Obamacare, they would get a $250 tax deduction. With the higher threshold of 10% in place under Obamacare, there’s no tax deduction.

Obamacare was passed in 2009, and many of the law’s supporters argued that it was budget-neutral. That turned out to be far from the case, in part because many tax increases included in Obamacare were deferred. And now the tax increases built into the plan are taking effect...with real world consequence for working and retired Americans.

I have voted many times now to end Obamacare and will vote to dismantle pieces of it any chance I get. Today was such a day.

 
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September 15: 

House Passes Guantanamo Bay Transfer Prevention Act: On legislative matters, the president has made it clear that he doesn’t know when no means no. He has so consistently pushed the envelope on unilateral actions that this morning, the House voted on the Guantanamo Bay Transfer Prevention Act. It would stop the president from transferring detainees at the prison to the United States and foreign countries until January 21, 2017. I voted yes, and the bill passed 244 to 174. Accordingly, I’d like to explain why I voted as I did.

Congress has been definitive on the issue of Guantanamo Bay and, with this president’s signature, has enacted five different laws that prevent the president from transferring prisoners at Guantanamo to the U.S. mainland. In that sense, the bill today was not new. What is new is prospect of the president moving into lame-duck status. At this point, his actions will no longer have electoral consequence, and given his unilateral executive action, it was important that Congress again make clear its view. In that regard, this bill was about upholding the rule of law with respect to the president’s ability to attempt more in the way of unilateral action. Continue reading....

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September 16: 

Budget Hearing on Growing Risks to Economy: Earlier this week, I spent a bit of time in a Budget Committee hearing focused on the connection between our nation’s financial health and economic growth. Here are a few take aways:

First, our nation’s staggering debt load (over $19 trillion) has reached or is on the cusp of reaching the point at which it slows down our economy’s growth. For the past half decade, the United States has averaged about 3% GDP annual growth. In recent years, estimates of projected growth have been dropping regularly, and the latest Congressional Budget Office update puts it at only 2%. What does that mean for the average American? At 3%, American citizens triple their income over a 30-year period, whereas at 2%, they would only double it. That could be the difference maker in paying off a home, sending the kids to college, or eventually retiring comfortably.

Second, another drag on our country’s economic growth comes from our overwhelming maze of regulations and a complicated and burdensome tax system. The World Bank keeps tabs on the ease of doing business in countries across the globe. It should be no surprise that there is a strong correlation between the ease of business and the overall welfare of a country’s population. Untangling our regulatory and tax systems should reasonably be expected to lead to greater economic growth and, in turn, a better standard of living for the American public.

Third, government borrowing makes it more difficult for the government to invest money in policies that drive and protect our nation in the long term. This is because the government, just like you or me when we get a loan from the bank, pays interest on its debt. As you could imagine, that is an enormous number...about a quarter trillion dollars. With so many of your tax dollars being spent simply on interest payments, there is less money available for things like education and defense. In fact, our debt interest payments are projected to eclipse our annual military spending in about five years.

I also find it pretty telling that one expert had to reach back all the way to the Napoleonic era to find an example of a nation that had an easy time recovering after a severe debt spike...the exception being the U.S. after World War II when it was the last man standing. I went in to some of my concerns on this front, and I’ve linked a video of some it here, if you’d like to hear a bit more.