Mark Watson

When House Speaker Nancy Pelosi unveiled her 1,990-page health insurance industry reform plan on Thursday, with its public option provisions, it’s a shame the public was banned from the announcement of the public option.

Keep out.

Surely a new day of transparency and bipartisanship was on display at the steps of the Capitol Building. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Maryland) told reporters that the bill was crafted in “the most deliberative, transparent and open process” he had seen in his 29-year career on Capitol Hill.

Well, since Hoyer says there is transparency, there must be transparency, right?

Since Republicans lawmakers were shut out debating this train wreck of a proposal, bipartisanship was on full display. After all, bipartisanship in Washington only occurs when Republicans either agree with Democrats or stay on the sidelines.

Only loyal Democratic congressional members and staff, along with insurance reform enthusiasts, were sent invitations to the event. Without an RSVP, no one was allowed on the Capitol steps where the event was held.

A Pelosi staffer was heard telling an uninvited American that, since he didn’t RSVP to attend the event, he wouldn’t be able to view the historic pronouncement. “You can watch the announcement on C-Span,” the unidentified staffer told the brazen citizen with the temerity to believe he was entitled to be on federal property paid for by tax dollars.

Why would the uninvited feel compel to reply, “Oh, OK, thank you,” and walk away?

How exactly does the outside of a taxpayer-paid for building like the Capitol become closed to the public? The same way Congress ignores the Constitution in attempting to legislate what they are not authorized to legislate.

The right reporters with press badges were allowed access to the event. Thank you notes are surely in the mail already.

Opaqueness by any other name is just as cloudy.

As to the proposed legislation itself, possessing a law degree is not necessary to understand it, but having one will certainly help.

Some of the more transparent sections that may be of interest to taxpayers include:

1173B. Interim Companion Guides, Including Operating Rules: ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall adopt a single, binding, comprehensive companion guide, that includes operating rules for each X12 Version 5010 transaction described in section 1173(a)(2), to be effective until the new version of these transactions which comply with section 1173A are adopted and implemented.”

And you thought proposed legislation would be full of legalese. How silly.

Many in the public, i.e. those not allowed to attend the unveiling of the public option, have expressed concern about impending insurance premiums costs. Never fear, Pelosi’s bill allows the new Secretary to establish standard rates in consultation with the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.

Now you can sleep at night.

To ensure health insurance companies that they are not targeted as demons in Pelosi’s bill, various sections have titles like Section 104’s “Sunshine on Price Gouging By Health Insurance Issuers”

Health insurance executives must be feeling warm and fuzzy by such inviting language.

Pelosi’s document uses the word “shall” 3,424 times. Even though politicians in the past have had difficulties with definitions of such ambiguous words as “is” and “tax”, it is believed that Pelosi and other lawmakers understand that “shall” is defined as a mandatory directive.

Some of the “shalls” portend ominous treatment to taxpayers.

• Employers who don’t pay a large enough percentage of employees’ health premiums shall pay an 8 percent excise tax on all wages they pay.
• Citizens failing to get congressionally approved insurance coverage shall pay an income surtax on their gross income.
• A 5.4 percent of gross income surtax will be extracted from wage earners making $500,000 (a million by a couple). Not to be outdone, the measure imposes a new excise tax on medical device manufacturers equal to 2.5 percent of the wholesale price.

Just for fun, the IRS could be able to disallow legal tax deductions related to health care if the taxpayer’s motive for taking the deduction was not primarily business-related.  Whether this will affect stay-at-home moms has not yet been determined.

Pelosi promises that the nearly $900 billion dollar bill would not increase the federal budget deficit.

The Speaker also intends to announce that UFOs will be exempted from landing fees at Reagan National Airport.

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