Morgan Griffith on Delaying Obamacare

The following remarks come from e-mails that appear to have been generated by two Popvox comments I made on two related U.S. House Resolutions. (Probably generic, they don't answer any non-public messages I've sent to my Congressman--I have usually remembered to thank him for what he's been doing on this issue.) Since the e-mails are formatted in such a way that they can't be simply pasted into Blogspot anyway, I'm quoting only parts of two e-mails from U.S. Representative Morgan Griffith. And for any readers out there who may think Yahoo is giving your e-mails a hard time, please be aware that the computer classified one of these two e-mails from a sitting U.S. Congressman as spam.

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Thank you for contacting me regarding ObamaCare.  I appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts.

 As you may know, the Obama Administration recently announced that it would be delaying for one year the 'employer mandate' built into the health care reform law, also known as Obamacare.  The employer mandate requires businesses with 50 or more full-time employees (which, in the case of Obamacare, applies to employees working 30 or more hours each week) to provide health insurance coverage to employees, or face a penalty tax up to several thousand dollars per employee.  

The employer mandate has been one of Obamacare's controversial provisions.  I have heard from numerous employers and managers across the Ninth District that this component of Obamacare has forced them to reduce hours, lay off employees, or lose sleep trying to figure out how to make their businesses work under this provision of the law.  Washington Post columnist Ezra Klein, generally thought of as a liberal, recently wrote, "It's a bad bit of policy.  In fact, when it first emerged during the Senate's negotiations, I called it 'one of the worst ideas in recent memory.'"

I agree with him on this.  The employer mandate doesn't need to be delayed, it needs to be scrapped.  

The Obama Administration delaying enforcement of the employer mandate is another admission that the law, as written, simply will not work.  

Senator Max Baucus, one of the law's main architects, was right when he described Obamacare as "a huge train wreck coming down."  The Administration's decision to delay the employer mandate is just another sign that the law was drafted very poorly and was not built carefully enough to work as President Obama promised.  It is past time that we dismantle Obamacare, and replace it with solutions that ensure access to affordable, high quality health care for all Americans.  

I supported legislation (H.R. 45) that would fully repeal Obamacare on May 16, 2013.  H.R. 45 passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 229 – 195.  Please know that I will continue advocating for commonsense policies until America finally achieves real health care reform.

 

Introduced by Representative Tom Price (R-GA) on May 16, 2013, H.R. 2009 would prohibit the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) from implementing or enforcing ObamaCare.  I am a cosponsor of this bill.  H.R. 2009 has been referred to the House Ways and Means Committee where it is currently under review.  You may be interested to know that I am also a cosponsor of similar legislation, the Prevent IRS Overreach Act of 2013 (H.R. 1993).  Introduced by Representatives Randy Forbes (R-VA) on May 15, 2013, H.R. 1993 would prohibit the IRS from hiring or transferring any personnel in order to implement ObamaCare.  H.R. 1993 has been referred to the House Ways and Means Committee where it is currently under review.

 

As you know, on Friday, May 17, ousted Acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee.  Mr. Miller stated "I don't think targeting is wrong."  Furthermore, the publication Politico reported that Mr. Miller "spent most of the hearing saying he didn't remember things – like the details of how he first learned of the targeting – and insisting he didn't mislead Congress by not telling lawmakers" when asked at a hearing in July 2012 if Tea Party and other conservative groups were being targeted by the IRS.  Mr. Miller seemed to believe that asking the conservative groups questions not asked of other ideological groups did not qualify as harassment.  Mr. Miller admitted that the IRS targeted groups with names, such as "tea party" and "patriot," more associated with conservative causes and that they did not target groups with names, such as "progress" and "organizing," more associated with liberal causes.

 

I agree with you.  I support policies that prohibit the IRS from participating in the implementation of ObamaCare.  Please know that I will monitor the situation closely as it continues to unfold to ensure that the IRS is held accountable for this shocking violation of the trust of the American people.

 

For more information on what is happening in Congress, please visit my website at  www.morgangriffith.house.gov .  If I may be of further assistance to you on this, or any other issue, please feel free to contact me in my Washington, DC office at (202) 225-3861.

 

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The e-mails contained a nice, formal signature graphic, which Blogspot software couldn't handle. I'm guessing that that's what the computer considered spam.