PELOSI: Buy a $15,000 Policy or Go to Jail
JCT Confirms Failure to Comply with Democrats’ Mandate Can Lead to 5 Years in Jail
Friday, November 06, 2009
Today, Ranking Member of the House Ways and Means Committee Dave Camp (R-MI) released a letter from the non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) confirming that the failure to comply with the individual mandate to buy health insurance contained in the Pelosi health care bill (H.R. 3962, as amended) could land people in jail. The JCT letter makes clear that Americans who do not maintain “acceptable health insurance coverage” and who choose not to pay the bill’s new individual mandate tax (generally 2.5% of income), are subject to numerous civil and criminal penalties, including criminal fines of up to $250,000 and imprisonment of up to five years.
In response to the JCT letter, Camp said: “This is the ultimate example of the Democrats’ command-and-control style of governing – buy what we tell you or go to jail. It is outrageous and it should be stopped immediately.”
Key excerpts from the JCT letter appear below:
“H.R. 3962 provides that an individual (or a husband and wife in the case of a joint return) who does not, at any time during the taxable year, maintain acceptable health insurance coverage for himself or herself and each of his or her qualifying children is subject to an additional tax.” [page 1]
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“If the government determines that the taxpayer’s unpaid tax liability results from willful behavior, the following penalties could apply…” [page 2]
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“Criminal penalties
Prosecution is authorized under the Code for a variety of offenses. Depending on the level of the noncompliance, the following penalties could apply to an individual:
• Section 7203 – misdemeanor willful failure to pay is punishable by a fine of up to $25,000 and/or imprisonment of up to one year.
• Section 7201 – felony willful evasion is punishable by a fine of up to $250,000 and/or imprisonment of up to five years.” [page 3]
When confronted with this same issue during its consideration of a similar individual mandate tax, the Senate Finance Committee worked on a bipartisan basis to include language in its bill that shielded Americans from civil and criminal penalties. The Pelosi bill, however, contains no similar language protecting American citizens from civil and criminal tax penalties that could include a $250,000 fine and five years in jail.
“The Senate Finance Committee had the good sense to eliminate the extreme penalty of incarceration. Speaker Pelosi’s decision to leave in the jail time provision is a threat to every family who cannot afford the $15,000 premium her plan creates. Fortunately, Republicans have an alternative that will lower health insurance costs without raising taxes or cutting Medicare,” said Camp.
According to the Congressional Budget Office the lowest cost family non-group plan under the Speaker’s bill would cost $15,000 in 2016.
Hear from a woman who says it all:
Who cares what the American people need or want? Obviously not our own government. As a middle class American family who has lost everything and fighting to gain at least a little bit of a normal life back, I want to thank Washington for lying to me and my family. I want to thank Washington for bailing out corporations who are still stealing every dime they can from my family. I want to thank Washington for raping my family of their future. I want to tell them that I love paying for their fancy dinners, nice vacations, and other "perks".
I also want to thank them for trying to pass a bill that will guarantee that we will no longer be middle class but will be the working poor. Just proves that the only people that count in the US are the super rich or the really poor.
Washington, I do have one question though.....if you couldn't manage Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid, what makes you think you can manage this either? Instead of going after the insurance companies you are just going after the citizens. Just like with the corporate bailouts. Guess if I had a couple million to bribe you people with then you would actually care what happens to my family!!!
All it takes to fix health care in this country is...
1. Removing GOVERNMENT IMPOSED restrictions on buying and selling insurance across state lines, which drives up the cost.
2. Tort Reform to minimize the cost of frivolous lawsuits and reduce the cost of malpractice insurance (fat chance considering our government is full of trial lawyers).
3. Get some kind of control over the millions of illegals using our hospitals for free.
