Americans for Tax Reform today sent the following letter to Congressman Charles Boustany (R-La.), the sponsor of H.R. 1173, which would repeal the CLASS Act section of the jobs-killing Obamacare law:

On behalf of Americans for Tax Reform, I am pleased to support H.R. 1173, the “Fiscal Responsibility and Retirement Security Act of 2011.”

Your bill, which has over 100 co-sponsors, would repeal the costly CLASS Act section of the jobs-killing Obamacare law.  

The CLASS Act is a Ponzi scheme designed by Ted Kennedy to make the Obamacare law look like it had a less disastrous impact on the budget than it actually will.  It masked over $70 billion in Obamacare’s total cost over its first decade—fully half of the claimed deficit savings of Obamacare proponents.  

Having outlived its usefulness, the CLASS Act was put out to pasture.  In October of this year, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius declared that this program was actuarially-unsound.  In accordance with the Obamacare statute’s requirements that it be so certified, the CLASS Act would not be implemented.

However, the CLASS Act is still on the books.  At any point, an HHS secretary could declare that a way had been found to make the CLASS Act work, and taxpayers would be stuck footing the bill for a new entitlement program designed as a Ponzi scheme.

H.R. 1173 removes that danger by repealing the CLASS Act entirely from law.  No longer would it hang as a Sword of Damocles over the American taxpayer.  Best of all, because the CLASS Act has been certified by HHS as non-implementable, H.R. 1173 has no budget scoring implications from CBO.  It’s a win-win for everyone.

Repealing the CLASS Act does not undermine support for full Obamacare repeal.  The CLASS Act was always a gimmicky sidecar to the rest of the Obamacare law.  No supporters of Obamacare repeal would be assuaged merely by CLASS Act repeal, and the intensity of the conservative movement to repeal Obamacare would remain undiminished.

Any Congressman serious about removing the CLASS Act’s danger to taxpayers should vote for H.R. 1173.

PDF of Letter

Posted by Ryan Ellis on Monday, January 23, 2012 3:20 PM EST

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