The Town Hall scheduled for Saturday, October 18, 2013 AT 10 TO 11:30 has been postponed to a later date in respect for the funeral of Bob Davies.

“The location of the Town Hall is in the same location, First Presbyterian Church and I don’t want to be disrespectful of the family and friends of Mr. Davies who will be celebrating his life in our church,” said Mrs. Riecken.

Because of the late notice, Rep Riecken will be at the church for any participants who might not receive the cancellation notice.

By Abdul Hakim-Shabazz
IndyPoltics.Org

Every time I see something in the media regarding the Affordable Care Act (ACA) all it does is make me sick to my stomach. I have maintained that this legislation was going to be a disaster and everything I see proves I am correct. Now I know my friends on the “progressive” side of the aisle think the ACA is the best thing since frozen yogurt and sliced bread, but they seem to forget the first rule of medicine is to do no harm, and that is all we will get from the ACA, harm.

First, let’s do a quick recap of what we know. Employers (despite the one-year delay) have to provide health insurance to what used to be considered part-time employees because the law now says a full-time employee is someone who works 30 hours a week instead of something a lot closer to 40. You have the federal government, for the first time in history, using its taxing authority to compel state and local governments to comply with the ACA, putting an even bigger strain on their budgets.

Abdul Hakim-Shabazz is an attorney and the editor and publisher of IndyPoltics.Org.

Premiums are going to rise as the healthy now have to pay for the sick and infirm, who get a better rate. And even those folks who have tried to comply with this and register through the exchange, can’t even log on most of the time since the administration never fully had the data infrastructure ready to go, even though more than $400 million was spent to get it up and running.

Now here’s a preview for what’s on the horizon. If what you’ve seen so far has made you feel ill, this will pretty much put you in the grave. In my hometown newspaper, the Chicago Tribune, there was a very thorough front-page story this past week on how the deductibles under Obamacare are tantamount to sticker shock once you get into the weeds and crabgrass of this thing.

Someone who buys insurance through their employer, the story found, was likely to pay about $1,100 in deductibles, under the “Affordable” Care Act, and I use the term affordable very loosely, and they are staring down the barrel of about $4,000.  Now granted, that is the Cook County area, but there is no reason why Indiana will be that much different.

If you go down the road to Kentucky, which my progressive friends have touted as a model, well one of those plans is only good if you get sick or injured in Kentucky. So if you live in Louisville and are driving across the bridge or are on the Ohio River, make sure you get sick on the Kentucky side because if it happens in Indiana you are out of luck.

And this all comes in the first couple of weeks of the ACA going on line. Just imagine what life will be like in 2014. And don’t even get me started on the medical device tax that is already hitting Indiana’s medical device injury like a cement truck.

We could have easily tackled our health care problem by creating a national version of the Healthy Indiana Plan which would have offered the working poor a chance to not only purchase health insurance, but also have skin in the game to encourage them to take responsibility for the own health and well-being. Instead we are going to have to deal with a monster that is going to spiral out of control and take this nation somewhere that no one will want to go when it is all said and done.

I am no fan of Sarah Palin, but the more I look at the ACA, I really do wish it had death panels.

Abdul is an attorney and the editor and publisher of IndyPoltics.Org. He is also a frequent contributor to numerous Indiana media outlets. He can be reached at abdul@indypolitics.org.

By Greg Zoeller
Indiana Attorney General

Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller

Can the IRS require Indiana’s state government to pay a tax penalty just like any other employer?

The answer will set a precedent that goes to the fundamental relationship between states and the federal government. Much confusion exists over the lawsuit my office recently filed against the IRS, similar to the confusion over the Affordable Care Act itself. Simply put, our lawsuit seeks a declaration by the court as to what the law means and how it affects state government.

We raise these questions respectfully, but since litigation is adversarial by nature some view this as an extension of political arguments in Washington D.C. regarding the ACA. Our case is part of the constitutional process by which new laws are tested and our judicial branch interprets their meaning. Obtaining a conclusive answer from the judiciary is important so that as the state’s lawyer I can provide proper legal advice to my government clients.

State government does not pay federal income taxes and the federal government does not pay state income taxes. This is called intergovernmental tax immunity, part of dual sovereignty and a bedrock of our constitutional system. As an employer, state government withholds taxes from the compensation we pay our employees who owe state and federal taxes. But state government itself does not fill out an IRS income tax form.

So when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the ACA was constitutional under Congress’ authority to impose taxes, it naturally raised the question whether states also would be subjected to the ACA employer mandate’s tax penalties. The IRS now seeks to impose tax authority over state government. If that occurs, it would significantly alter the relationship between the federal government and states in a negative way.

My office does not represent individuals or private sector employers but rather the sovereign authority of Indiana. When we realized state government could face tens of millions of dollars in IRS tax penalties if even one part-time state employee was misclassified in their benefits-eligibility category, I decided to proactively bring this question to the courts, rather than wait for the state to be hit with an enormous tax bill – a penalty that would only serve to transfer state and local tax dollars to the federal IRS.

We seek relief from the employer mandate for state government and schools; but it will be up to the court to structure a remedy. Our lawsuit does not challenge the ability of citizens to shop for insurance coverage using the new federal exchange or to insure young people on their parents’ plans to age 26; it asks whether the IRS is correctly interpreting the ACA statute Congress passed.

As attorney general, my obligation is to defend our state’s authority and the decisions of our state’s policymakers. Usually this means defending the state when it is sued by plaintiffs. But from time to time the state must initiate its own lawsuits challenging federal actions that infringe upon our state’s authority. This is one of those rare occasions.

Greg Zoeller is attorney general of Indiana and a Republican.