[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Pages 4929-4930]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                               OBAMACARE

  Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, tomorrow is April 15. April 15 is a date

[[Page 4930]]

that causes a great deal of stress and anxiety for hard-working 
American taxpayers. For millions of American families, this year is 
going to be worse than ever before. The Obama health care law, 
ObamaCare, is making tax day harder for Americans.
  American taxpayers who were forced into the ObamaCare system--well, 
they are having to fill out even more forms this year than in the past, 
so many forms that the Internal Revenue Service can then enforce all of 
the President's health care mandates. It is a complicated and 
burdensome process.
  President Obama promised that buying health insurance through 
ObamaCare was going to be as easy as buying a television on Amazon. 
Well, why didn't the President ever say it was going to be so difficult 
to satisfy the IRS? Why didn't the President say that hard-working 
American taxpayers would have to fill out pages and pages of forms just 
to find out if they had actually paid the right amount for their health 
insurance? Why didn't the President say that people who changed jobs 
during the year might have to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars to 
the IRS?
  That doesn't happen when you buy a television on Amazon. Amazon tells 
you the price, and that is what you pay. Amazon doesn't make you fill 
out the forms on April 15; Amazon doesn't demand more money from you 
after the amount you paid. But that is what is happening to millions of 
Americans across the country. Taxes were already too complicated. Now, 
because of ObamaCare, it is much worse.
  For this year's tax filing season, the IRS released seven new forms 
that people might have to fill out to comply with the new health care 
law. The instructions alone for these forms are 46 pages long.
  A married couple with 2 children might have to enter numbers and 
other information into 133 individual boxes on just 1 of the new 
ObamaCare tax forms. A family could spend more time filling out one of 
these forms than they used to spend filling out their entire tax 
returns in the past.
  So for people who go through all of this effort, the results actually 
still can be terrifying.
  CNN ran a report earlier this year about the problem. The headline 
was: ``I have to pay back my ObamaCare subsidy.'' They told the story 
of Janice Riddle from Los Angeles. She got an ObamaCare subsidy last 
year. Then when she got a new job, she forgot to tell the IRS about the 
new job. They sort of knew because she was getting paid from the new 
job and she was paying taxes, but she didn't actually alert the IRS 
about it from the standpoint of ObamaCare. So when she was doing taxes 
this year, she learned she has to pay back the entire amount of the 
subsidy, more than $5,000.
  She told CNN:

       I'm in shock . . . but I have no choice. Do I want to argue 
     with the IRS or the Obama administration?

  Well, Janice is not alone. The Obama administration says as many as 
7.5 million families in America will have to reconcile their ObamaCare 
subsidies on their taxes for 2014 when they have the filing deadline 
tomorrow.
  According to a study by the Kaiser Family Foundation, last month only 
4 percent of all the families who qualified for a subsidy got the right 
amount. So the Kaiser Family Foundation did a study last month, and 
what they have come out with is only 4 percent of all the families 
across the country who qualified for a subsidy got the right amount. 
The study found that half of all U.S. households that were eligible for 
a subsidy would have to pay back some of it with their taxes this year. 
The average amount they are going to have to pay back is $794.
  One of those people who just found out he owes the government so much 
money is Rob Tuck from Dublin, CA. According to an article last week by 
the Associated Press, he said he had expected to actually get a refund 
for his taxes--a refund of $400 for his taxes from his work last year. 
It turns out his refund has been almost wiped out--wiped out--to repay 
some of the subsidy he got to buy an expensive ObamaCare policy. He 
changed jobs during the year. He got a little extra income. In America, 
that should be a good thing, you get extra income. Well, not for him. 
It came with a large pricetag from the government. He said he enrolled 
in the plan to avoid the tax penalties of being uninsured, and he says 
that now he feels penalized by the Obama administration anyway.
  Another person who is feeling penalized by the President's health 
care law is Bill Preus of St. Petersburg, FL. He was quoted in the same 
Associated Press article last week. This man was only on ObamaCare for 
3 months. After that time, he went onto Medicare. Well, there was poor 
coordination between the ObamaCare Web site, healthcare.gov, and his 
insurance company. Because of that, he may have to pay the IRS close to 
$4,000.
  Now, the man used to own an insurance agency, and, according to the 
article, he said he is used to complexity, but he said he never has 
seen anything like this. He told the Associated Press: ``It's a total 
mess.''
  His tax preparer and the IRS both told him--his tax preparer and the 
IRS--that the best thing to do was to file an incomplete return so it 
would trigger an audit and then they could sort things out.
  Is that the President's idea of his health care plan being as easy to 
use as buying a TV on Amazon? This man has to go through an IRS audit. 
That is what they are hoping for, to get audited by the IRS. 
Apparently, that is the easiest way for Washington to figure out its 
own rules. It is outrageous.
  When the President, in the past, has been asked about the health care 
law, he said it is actually working better than he expected. What did 
he expect when people are telling stories such as these?
  The President's health care law is more than 2,000 pages long. It 
paid for thousands of IRS agents--people to investigate American 
taxpayers to make sure they comply with all the law's destructive and 
expensive mandates. But all of that complexity has become a disaster. 
This law has been bad for patients, it has been bad for providers, and 
as we reach the IRS filing deadline tomorrow, it is clear this law is 
terrible for taxpayers.
  This isn't what Democrats promised, and it is not what the American 
people wanted. People didn't want more redtape, more stress. They just 
wanted the care they need from a doctor they choose at lower costs. 
That is what Republicans in the Senate are working to give them. We can 
do it without more IRS audits. We can do it without a 2,000-page law. 
We can do it without making tax day harder for Americans. We can do it 
without all the negative side effects of ObamaCare.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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