Statement by 60 Plus Chairman Jim Martin Lauding House Ways & Means Committee ranking member Dave Camp (R-MI) for his leadership efforts.

Alexandria, VA – Jim Martin, chairman of the 60 Plus Association, a seniors advocacy group, applauded the efforts of fiscally conservative Republicans trying to save our country from financial disaster with bad medicine — Obamacare.

As Minority Whip Eric Cantor’s (R-VA) team recently said in a statement:

The Republican Motion to Recommit H.R. 5486, the Small Business Jobs Tax Relief Act, would repeal the unconstitutional individual mandate included in the Democrats’ new Health Care law.

The Democrats’ recently enacted government take-over of Health Care requires every American to purchase health insurance or pay a new tax if they don’t purchase an “acceptable” form of coverage.

CBO estimates that by 2016, the individual mandate tax penalty will hit the middle- and low-income Americans the hardest with roughly 75% of Americans who pay this tax having household incomes below 500% of the Federal Poverty Level. Because of this, repealing the mandate will reduce the deficit – if individuals are not forced to buy insurance, then they will also not be forced to accept taxpayer-funded subsidies to help them afford the mandated insurance. (The MTR would reduce the deficit by $252 billion over the 2010-2020 timeframe)

Because the individual mandate is enforced by a tax penalty, the IRS will have to hire additional Federal employees to implement the law. Repealing the mandate thus reduces the thousands of IRS employees expected to be hired to enforce the new health care law (and reduces the Federal payroll).

This MTR is a vote for personal choice and deficit reduction. As Americans, we expect the right to choose what we purchase – we don’t need Washington telling us what to buy. With the debt now topping $13 Trillion, every opportunity to reduce the deficit and stop spending must be taken seriously.

60 Plus is a non-partisan advocacy group that represents 5.5 million seniors and believes strongly in the need to repeal Obamacare.

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