start, we re doing things differently because i don t think this is the way that we should be governing. fresh start begins in a few days, the budget wrapped up, attention focusing on terrorism. and national security. and reflecting the themes of the presidential campaign. democrats will focus on gun control and income equality and criminal justice reform. republicans tackle the issues of obamacare, refugees and defunding planned parenthood. we owe the country a better agenda, a better way forward. we owe the country a fresh approach, a new plan, and that s what we re going to do. but speaker ryan does have his work cut out for him. real clear politics average has congressional approval at only 13%. but that is not the lowest ever. in february 2014, congress hit a rock bottom 6% approval rating in one poll. meaning it has only been improving. even the president not known for his endorsement of congressional republicans was praising them and their new boss for finding
provide high cost insurance benefits. a one year delay for a tax on health insurers. doug holt aiken is with us, the former congressional budget office director under george w. bush and the president of the american action forum. good to see you. thank you for joining us. thank you, maria. happy to be here. what is your take on pushing all the obamacare taxes back. the affordable care act is filled with bad tax policy. the medical device tax is a tax leavied on small device manufacturers who don t have any profits at that point and time. hard for them to do the development. this health insurers tax, most people don t know about, it takes beginning with $8 billion and ramping up, it takes the money out of the industry regardless of the economic circumstances. that should get passed to higher premiums. then the cadillac tax, which is sold as a sales tax on very expensive policies, but turned into an extremely complicated and burdensome tax for the employers. in the end, you have a
incentives to control cost. you use the systems you have. i see. look ahead for us, doug. what is coming up in the budget battle we need to be aware of in terms of catalysts? i think what they have done is, you know, set this on auto pilot through 2016. so i don t think we re going to see a big battle that was the idea get through the election year without having difficulties in that front. but immediately after the election, the real challenges start. the big spending programs, the medicares, medicaid, affordable care act, social security, are all on unsustainable trajectories. they have to lay out a strategy for reform that makes them sustainable, makes them good for their constituencies. which is why many of the gop candidates are talking about reforming these big entitlements, any plan that
bill, i think the strategy is to push it back a couple of years, hope that you get a different president, a new congress, and get this done right both from the health policy point of view and tax poly point of view . i don t see the i don t see the idea of pushing taxes back, if they re going to hit us at some point, but what you re saying and what he was trying to make the case is that, yes, when a new president comes in, not just pushing the taxes back, we re looking for a whole repeal. no question there is an interesting repeal in the affordable care act. take the cadillac tax, this is a very complicated tax, 40% rate, why should someone who is in the 15% tax bracket pay a 40% tax rate if the goal is to make their health insurance taxable. much simpler way to do it. call compensation, tax at the appropriate rate, you can exclude some of the tax, tap the exclusion, there are a lot of options there that have the same
with a 100 night low price guarantee, sleep train s love your mattress money back guarantee, same day delivery, plus helpful advice from the sleep experts, it s no wonder more than a million people fall asleep each night on a sleep train mattress! sleep train [train horn] your ticket to a better night s sleep welcome back. congress passing that budget and it is now taking another crack at rolling back obamacare. so far the so-called cadillac tax has already been pushed back two years aimed at employers who