Inky calls out Republicans on Affordable Care Act

NewsWorks’ National Interest blogger and Inquirer political columnist, Dick Polman puts the GOP on blast for a “shamelessly brazen” lie, in a story today on Philly.com.

In his piece, Polman cites how top republicans have made the Affordable Care Act seem like a “humungous tax hike on the middle class” thanks to President Obama’s health-reform provision requiring most Americans to purchase health coverage.

But Polman argues “Obama’s supposedly sweeping tax — his penalty for noncompliance — will be levied on a grand total of 1.2 percent of the American people,” a fact he gets from the Congressional Budget Office’s 2016 projections.

 

“98.8 percent will not pay a cent, because virtually all Americans (a) will already have health coverage, (b) will have obtained coverage for the first time, thanks to federal subsidies and tax credits, or (c) will be exempt from the penalty, because of economic hardship or religious beliefs,” Polman writes.

This leaves just a small fraction of Americans who will in reality be penalized.

For more on this story, visit philly.com. Find recent posts from Polman here on NewsWorks.org.