Recent John Locke Foundation election preview panelist Byron York writes in his latest Washington Examiner column that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney ought to exploit the link between ObamaCare and the Internal Revenue Service.
Romney might want to focus on the new and expanded role that the Internal Revenue Service will play in Americans’ lives as a result of the Affordable Care Act.
The nation’s widely reviled tax collector will also become its health care enforcer. Once the law goes fully into effect, all Americans will have to prove that they have “qualified” health coverage — and, of course, the government will decide what “qualified” health coverage is. If people don’t have coverage, and the IRS determines they have the ability to pay for it, the IRS will go after them.
The Obama administration has tried to downplay what the feds will do to collect the penalty for not buying coverage — a penalty that will range from $695 a year for lower-income people to $12,500 for a higher-income family. Administration officials and Democrats in Congress have stressed that Obamacare does not permit the IRS to garnish wages or seize cash and assets from taxpayers.
What they mention less frequently is that the IRS has another way to get the money. About three-quarters of U.S. taxpayers receive refunds after filing their returns each year, with the average refund nearly $3,000. After 2014, those people will discover the IRS can take the penalty out of their refunds.
