Does Speaker Nancy Pelosi Dodge Health Care Question?

Komo 4 News (ABC Seattle) Reporter Shomari Stone Asks House Speaker Nanci Pelosi a fair question about the following:

According to Committee On Ways & Means Republicans Ranking Member, Dave Camp, "the non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) confirming that the failure to comply with the individual mandate to buy health insurance contained in the Pelosi health care bill (H.R. 3962, as amended) could land people in jail. The JCT letter makes clear that Americans who do not maintain acceptable health insurance coverage and who choose not to pay the bills new individual mandate tax (generally 2.5% of income), are subject to numerous civil and criminal penalties, including criminal fines of up to $250,000 and imprisonment of up to five years."

BUT IN ALL FAIRNESS, the Office of Speaker Nancy Pelosi released this information in an email to Shomari Stone about an hour after the news conference

"Reform includes a shared responsibility requirement, for those who dont already have insurance to either purchase affordable health insurance or pay a fee of 2.5 percent of their income so they are not driving up everyone elses health costs.

Under the bill, the only people who would face the fee for not purchasing insurance are those who can truly afford to purchase such insurance.

For those who can afford insurance but for some reason do not purchase it, they simply pay the fee a fee designed to cover their costs when they use the health care system. For a small number of people who might refuse to pay the fee, it is important to remember that, in the majority of cases, the IRS which will enforce the insurance requirement uses the CIVIL process to settle delinquent penalties and taxes.




It would only be in extremely rare circumstances that criminal prosecutions of any kind would be pursued. Indeed, in 2008, there were 156 million individual tax returns filed in the United States. Out of all of those 156 million returns, there were only 100 criminal prosecutions for willful failure to pay taxes and only for the most egregious examples of those who willfully defraud the system."

November 9, 2009

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• Shomari
• Stone
• Shomari Stone
• Komo 4 Reporter Shomari Stone
• House Speaker Nanci Pelosi
• Shomari Stone and Nanci Pelosi

[haywood16]

PELOSI = COMMUNIST

[SharkSport]

her role as congress person has enabled her husband to make BILLIONS!

[fitnesschaser01]

uuuhh... do i have the option to pay social security or other taxes?

[greekspartan91]

this bill is an attack on the entrepreneurs and small business owners that built this great nation on their backs. Go to work, get off welfare, and we wont have a problem. Its an attempt at socialism, the left wings are communists.

[TheDano1947]

WHAT ABOUT THE POOR SLOBS WHO CAN'T AFFORD HEALTH CARE AT ANY PRICE AND CERTAINLY CAN'T AFFORD THE FINE. THROWING PEOPLE IN JAIL FOR NOT HAVING HEALTH CARE IS UN-AMERICAN. WHAT'S NEXT, CAR INSURANCE OR JAIL OR HOW ABOUT TERM LIFE INSURANCE OR JAIL. PELOSI IS A FASCIST!!!

[PutSome5tankOnIt]

Great idea. "I can't afford health insurance". Put me in jail. The other taxpayers who can't afford health insurance will foot the bill. Really?

[fluteygurl0]

@DimeWyldeBilly I agree. If their damn healthcare reform is so amazing, their asses should be the first ones on it.

[VideoSeattle]

@athrak123 About that paragraph you refer to: Politicians advertised it as a penalty, not a tax. They absolutely didn't want the public to think it was a tax and therefore the lawsuit by 20 states goes forward in December 2010 based on this new bad law using a penalty for not buying health insurance. Their original language puts this progressive boondoggle in jeopardy. I would argue that the bill would have failed passage had they come out in the beginning and presented it as a tax.

[stdTrancR]

you shouldn't be forced to buy health coverage, but, if you can't pay your doctor bill, then you contribute to the problem of uncompensated care and therefor SHOULD be forced to buy health care coverage. Thus, I think we need this to depend on a credit check.

[vampscamp]

NOT EVERYONE IS PAYING FOR THIS HEALTHCARE!!!!!!!!!

THE MIDDLE CLASS PEOPLE ARE PROVIDING THIS! NOT THE POOOR PEOPLE!

[Raine419]

And why should the burden be on the middle class to pay for the losers of the system, aka career welfare recipients?  Socialism does not work in America!!

[pcaguitarist]

@MeditationSong

We need to all unite as Americans and stop fighting with one another about miniscule problems and start raising fundamental questions such as "why has the federal reserve never been audited? or what purposes does it serve? Why are we overlooking the Constitution?"

It is not about democrats or republicans any more, it is like a stage performance. We need to stop the left from destroying our constitution and stop the govt from expanding and regulating the free market.

Mises.org