BCA's Washington Briefing
follow us on facebook follow us on twitter follow us on youtube Dec. 18, 2015


CONGRESS STALLS EMPLOYEE BENEFITS TAX; KEEPS 'CADILLAC' PLANS ROLLING
 
Congress has delayed the Obama Administration's ruinous Employee Benefits Tax that threatened to cut benefits offered by employers and destroy jobs through higher taxation.

National Association of Manufacturers Chief Economist Chad Moutray said a two-year delay in the so-called "Cadillac Tax" will allow manufacturers to continue to offer good benefits. "Manufacturers have always strived to offer quality employee benefits including health care to their employees," Moutray said.

A NAM study showed how the tax would hurt many middle-class families and manufacturers. The accelerating nature of the tax would prompt many employers to eliminate benefits such as on-site clinics, wellness programs, and health saving accounts.

A majority of Americans oppose the tax and with virtually every manufacturer and business being impacted by it, the delay is welcome, and we urge Congress to repeal it fully.

The 2010 Affordable Care Act implemented a tax on employee health care benefits that is to begin in January 2018. The accelerating nature of the tax will cause many employers to continually increase cost sharing and/or eliminate benefits, NAM said.

If health insurance premium prices increase moderately, the tax would hit between almost 30 percent of manufacturers' plans by 2025 and more than 80 percent by 2035. If they increase at a higher rate, the employee benefits tax would affect 60 percent of plans in the manufacturing sector by 2025 and virtually all plans by 2035.

Job losses from the tax could total 2.6 million by 2035, and real personal income in 2014 dollars would be reduced by almost $3,800 per household. The economic tax burden would reduce GDP by 1.7 percent by 2035.
2016 BUDGET DEAL DOES NOT REDUCE DEFICIT SPENDING
 
The House on Thursday passed a sweeping $622 billion tax package and today passed a  $1.1 trillion 2016 budget as Congress heads out of  Washington D.C. , for the holidays.

The House approved the "tax extenders" bill in a 318-109 vote with only three Republicans voting against it. The bill permanently renews important tax provisions and ends years of short-term revisions and extending other tax breaks.

The House today voted 316-113 on a $1.1 trillion omnibus spending measure that would fund the government through Sept. 30, 2016, The Hill reported. The White House signaled support for both measures and the Senate could combine and approve them, although neither cuts spending.

The tax measure makes permanent several tax breaks that are important to job-creating businesses, such as the research and development tax credit, and enhanced small business expensing under Section 179 of the tax code.

The measures also will reform the Internal Revenue Service in the wake of the controversy surrounding the IRS's targeting of political groups and include a two-year freeze of ObamaCare's medical-device tax. And the bill would lift the ban on crude oil exports, a ban that has been in place since the 1970s, the Hill reported. The research and development tax credit and the Section 179 small-business expensing deduction would become law.
CONGRESS SAYS THE EPA BROKE THE LAW ON WATER RULE
 
Congressional auditors say the Obama Administration's Environmental Protection Agency broke the law several times with covert propaganda in support of a controversial regulation that gives the agency power over smaller bodies of water, The Hill reported.

The Government Accountability Office said EPA social media campaigns in support of its "Waters of the U.S." rule broke laws that prohibit federal agencies from promoting or lobbying for their own actions.

The EPA also broke the law with a blog post that linked to two environmental groups' pages urging readers to contact members of Congress to oppose legislation, The Hill reported. And the EPA spent government resources that had not been appropriated, another violation.

The Business Council of Alabama opposed the WOTUS rule that has been temporarily blocked by a federal court. The EPA said despite the court ruling it will proceed with the rule that was never passed by Congress.

The EPA used social media to counter opposition to its water rule, which imposes new restrictions on how land near certain surface waters can be used, the New York Times reported.

The WOTUS rule is a flagrant government overreach and the campaign of "covert propaganda" concealed the fact that social messages were coming from the EPA and not people, essentially turning the EPA into lobbyists for its cause by including links that directed people to advocacy organizations, the Times reported.

Federal agencies may promote their own policies but not covertly propagandize to influence the public and may not use federal resources to urge the public to contact Congress to take a certain kind of action on pending legislation.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT 
Up the Creek Without a Paddle
U.S. Chamber of Commerce (Hackbarth) Washington Examiner (Higgins) 12/16 "Companies that provide tour guides for people who like to hike, canoe and ride on horseback now may have to hike it out of public lands themselves, thanks to an executive order the president signed last year creating a $10.10 minimum wage for federal contractors. The Labor Department says wilderness outfitter companies operating in the national parks qualify as 'federal contractors' and are therefore subject to the rule.

"That's contrary to the common understanding of what a federal contractor is - a company being paid by the government to provide a product or service, such as building a road or supplying soldiers with boots. The outfitters, by contrast, are writing checks to the government to get the permits they need to operate in public parks. But under the department's new rules, that's enough.

"'We pay the government. The government doesn't pay us', said Dave Brown, executive director of the America Outdoors Association trade group. That minimum wage will rise to $10.15 an hour on January 1, 2016. President Barack Obama has a bad habit of using executive orders to usurp Congress' authority when he can't get his way legislatively.

"As noted above, the president bypassed Congress with a 2014 executive order increasing the minimum wage for employees of federal contractors. He followed that up with an executive order in 2015 mandating that federal contractors-outdoor guides included-offer their workers at least seven days of paid time off each year. 'In the context of these two executive orders, they've essentially rewritten what it means to be a contractor, to get maximum participation in these goals they're pursuing', said Marc Freedman, who directs labor law policy for the Chamber of Commerce."
PROUD PARTNERS OF

US Chamber of Commerce   National Association of Manufacturers
CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVES
Sixth District
 U. S. Rep. Gary Palmer
202.225.4921

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