The House of Representatives will vote on the SIMPLE Fairness Act today, a bill that would delay implementation of Obamacare's individual mandate tax by one year and, according to the Congressional Budget Office, would cut the deficit by $10 billion over the next five years.
“The President recently issued another delay to unilaterally change his own law, a delay that protected businesses from the employer mandate tax," bill sponsor Rep. Lynn Jenkins (R-KS) said Friday, "It is not fair to give relief to businesses with big checkbooks, yet not help hard working families with relief from these unaffordable mandates."
Jenkins' legislation would not only ensure that no American would pay an Obamacare individual mandate tax penalty in 2014, but it would also shift implementation of Obamacare's entire mandate tax schedule back a year. So the $325, or 2 percent of taxable income, fine scheduled to begin in 2015, would now begin in 2016.
According to a CBO report released Tuesday, the SIMPLE Fairness Act would "reduce deficits by roughly $10 billion over the 2014-2019 period" as more than one million Americans would freely choose not to receive taxpayer funded Medicaid benefits or insurance premium subsidies.
“This legislation is about fairness, as it would authorize the same delay for individual Americans that the President keeps giving to businesses,” Jenkins added.
The White House has already said they would veto the bill, but President Obama will not wield a veto pen forever. Eventually there will be a new occupant in the White House, and the SIMPLE Fairness Act is a preview of how conservatives can roll back Obamacare in the post-Obama era.