I had planned to write about Donald Trump* today, because with all the attention paid to his absurd "birther" bloviations,^ no one ever seems to mention that what Trump and his ilk are accusing the President of would be, if true, a felonious conspiracy, a nonviolent coup d'etat that might actually rise to the level of treason. It shouldn't be written off as a fringe fixation or a sideshow; it's about as serious an allegation as one could make, on a par with claiming that a President is guilty of, say, war crimes.
However, my attention was caught this morning by an Associated Press article headed "Obama's Health Care Aid to Small Firms Disappoints." The article begins thus:
"It seemed like a good idea at the time. But a health insurance tax credit for small businesses [included in the Obamacare legislation] has turned out to be a disappointment."
The article goes on to explain that the tax credit--which, in a misty bygone era, had bipartisan support--has proven to be too "time-consuming" and not large enough for the intended beneficiaries to bother with. Worse, it's targeted at the very smallest employers (10 employees or less) and in particular at those who pay the lowest wages; which means that a conscientious businessman who pays decent wages doesn't qualify for the tax credit.. The latest available figures show that only 170,000 firms--out of perhaps 4 million that are eligible--have so far received the credit, and the average credit allowed has been $2700. "170,000 firms" (representing close to a million employees) isn't nothing, of course, especially since that number includes only the first year following the passage of Obamacare; nevertheless, it does seem an underwhelming response.
The Associated Press presents this in a straightforward, matter-of-fact way, but I was curious: how "time-consuming" is it to apply for a $2700 (on average) credit? According to the article, it takes tax preparers anywhere from 5 to 13 hours to fill out the necessary paperwork, and darned if that doesn't sound like a lot of time.** On the other hand, divide $2700 by either 5 (minimum time required) or 13 (maximum time required): based on the AP's own data, an employer claiming the tax credit would get a return of anywhere from $200 to $500 per hour of preparation time. When you put it that way, it doesn't sound so "time-consuming" after all.
While the article focuses on the supposedly misguided good intentions of the tax credit, it also points to the political division in which it's embroiled. Advocates of Obamacare say that the credit just needs to be "tweaked" in order to fix its shortcomings; opponents^^ say that it, and the entire bill, needs to be eliminated--it's just too hopelessly cumbersome to be fixed. The National Federation of Independent Businesses (the nation's largest association of the kind of small firms the tax credit is designed to help) is one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit which has been brought against the Affordable Care Act, while a rival group--Small Business Majority--supports the law.
Interestingly, buried in the middle of the article is a quotation from the head of that Small Business Majority, a gentleman named John Arensmeyer: "The problem is all the negative publicity around the health care law has discouraged business owners from applying for the credit." You think? Is it possible that employers, besieged by misinformation about Obamacare and uncertain***whether the law will stand up to legal challenge, have held off implementing its provisions and even applying for its tax credits? It probably doesn't help that the tax credit in question is scheduled to expire in 2016, and that Republicans are adamantly refusing to help "fix" it, much less extend it.
The Obamacare small business tax credit is a great example of two very different things. First, it's an example of the undisputed fact that almost any piece of legislation will need tweaking, adjusting, and revising after the fact; legislators with the best intentions in the world won't get a bill exactly right in every detail, and will need to make necessary changes and improvements based on the law's actual (as opposed to "intended") effects. Second, it's an example of how, in the current political climate, even a "fixable" component of a piece of legislation is unlikely to get the simple repair(s) that would make it work better; partisan opponents would rather ditch the component and even the entire bill than try to find ways to make it work.
In short--and the Associated Press article doesn't tell you this--a "working" Affordable Care Act is not in the Republican Party's best interests; at least, that's been their calculation, one that I doubt it took them anywhere close to 5 to 13 hours to make. That, I think, is the real story here.
___________________________________________________________________
*Who confided last night to Greta Van Susteren, "As you know, I have a very large Twitter." Ms. Van Susteren is a professional journalist; she kept a straight face and didn't take the bait.
^George Will gets credit for that one.
**Because the tax credit is a new provision, the forms aren't yet included in most tax preparation software; once that's done, preparation time should be drastically reduced.
^^Some of whom, surprise, originally supported it.
***I knew it! "Uncertainty" rears its ugly head once again, this time for good reason.

Recent Comments