Last week, The Daily Caller published an article with a new analysis from the architect of ObamaCare. According to the article:

"Massachusetts Institute of Technology economist Jonathan Gruber, who also devised former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s statewide health care reforms, is backtracking on an analysis he provided the White House in support of the 2010 Affordable Care Act, informing officials in three states that the price of insurance premiums will dramatically increase under the reforms."

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Charles Krauthammer has a wonderfully written piece tackling the hypocrisy of the Obama Administration on the issue of contraception. He concludes the article, saying: 

"The contradiction is glaring, the hypocrisy breathtaking. But that’s not why Obama offered a hasty compromise on Friday. It’s because the firestorm of protest was becoming a threat to his reelection. Sure, health care, good works, and religion are important. But reelection is divine."

Read his article here.

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AHEC commends to articles to your reading list, both of which go into detail about the similarities between RomneyCare and ObamaCare.

Read the two articles here:  Article 1 (WSJ)  Article 2 (NewsMax).

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According to John Goodman's blog post from January 6, 2012, Idaho Governor Butch Otter is claiming Idaho will loose 20% of the federal government's share of Medicaid funding for his state unless the state creates a state insurance exchange (or $300 million.  Goodman and AHEC agree states should NOT create the exchanges.

As to Otter's claims of losing funds, Graham writes: "Look folks, the whole notion is bunk. There is no connection whatsoever between a state's federal matching funds and whether it establishes a Health Benefits Exchange. No state should establish a Health Benefits Exchange - period, full stop."

Otter has since backed of his claims but this begs the question, "Why lie about it?"  

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On Friday, January 6, the Internal Revenue Service issued a press release claiming what the "tax gap" (or federal taxes which are not paid on time) was for tax year 2006. The IRS estimates that $385 billion was not collected in 2006 ($376 billion was from "underreporting"). Before anyone in Congress thinks that they can or would be able to close the tax gap, they should be reminded the tried and they failed as part of ObamaCare.

What?  Yes. That is where the failed 1099 revenue provision of ObamaCare came from (it was supposed to close the tax gap and raise $17.1 billion to "pay for" ObamaCare). Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND) regularly talks about closing the tax gap as if it is as easy as buying a coke from a vending machine. The problem is that collecting even a fraction of the tax gap imposes a huge compliance burden every business and many individual taxpayers. That is why Congress sought to repeal ObamaCare's 1099 provision before it even went into effect.  So as you read articles about the tax gap and people "not paying their fare share" just remember that closing the tax gap is not as easy as the politicians say it is (they should know better, they tried, they failed to close it in 2010).

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The Pacific Research Institute (PRI) has published a new paper explaining how over-regulation in the health insurance industry leads to fewer consumer choices. Fewer choices means there is less competition and with less competition consumers will pay more for insurance. ObamaCare takes America down this path. By creating a regulatory barrier to entry, as ObamaCare does, consumers end up getting hurt over the long run.

IF you get the chance, take the time to read PRI's paper - it is informative. 

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Paul Conner writes for the Daily Caller about ObamaCare's really bad year. The 35 named instances that showed ObamaCare in a bad light include: legal challenges and rulings that the individual mandate was unconstitutional; House and Senate votes to repeal the law (the majority lost in the Senate); repeal of the onerous 1099 reporting requirement (ultimately good for small business but repeal means ObamaCare will add more to the deficit); CBO determines the law will cost $90 billion more than originally estimated; the waiver scandal reveals that HHS Secretary does not have legal authority to issue the waivers that are politically motivated (she "gave" herself the authority by regulation); studies show employers will drop employee healthcare as a result of ObamaCare; HHS abandons the CLASS Act due to its unworkability (this reduces the revenue needed to "pay for" ObamaCare in the early years meaning ObamaCare will dramatically add to the deficit); the IRS reveals it cannot collect many of the taxes required to "pay for" (ObamaCare's deficit hole grows even bigger); even stalwart liberals decide to back repeal of IPAB - one of the central cost-containing measures of ObamaCare (the law gets more expensive).

The list of ObamaCare's failures is stunning when read in their totality - kudos to Paul Conner for an article well done.

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