Patterico's Pontifications

10/16/2013

Michael Hiltzik: Lack of Income Verification in ObamaCare Could Not Possibly Lead to Fraud!

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:48 am



Michael Hiltzik:

The focus on “income verification” in the Affordable Care Act is especially cynical. It became a Republican shibboleth earlier this year, possibly because its fans knew that implementing such a system fully was practically impossible, as it requires sophisticated computer matching of government income data with applications for subsidies. The rule is part of the act, but the government was not planning to implement it until 2015.

Until then, the government said it would rely on the honor system and voluntary compliance, backed up by subsequent audits. Critics of Obamacare wring their hands over this, as though most of our financial reporting to the government isn’t already based on the honor system. (Or do you get audited by the IRS every year?)

Ever heard of withholding, Hiltzik? This is hardly an unbridled “honor system.”

If you give people the chance to defraud the government, they will defraud the government. Look at what happened with the EBT card glitch in Louisiana.

They seem to think that the availability of subsidies will set off a torrent of fraud, because of course it’s worth facing $25,000 in statutory penalties in order to falsify documents to get a few hundred dollars a month in subsidies.

Hiltzik seems to think that the lack of verification will not set off a torrent of fraud, because criminals are always rational; thus, the existence of criminal penalties means there will be no crime.

Nice theory. Too bad reality proves it’s wrong.

19 Responses to “Michael Hiltzik: Lack of Income Verification in ObamaCare Could Not Possibly Lead to Fraud!”

  1. It is like people like Hiltzik are incapable of feeling shame.

    JD (42661b)

  2. Michael Hiltzik is a fraud.
    He’s been suspended twice that we know of, by the Los Angeles Times, for poor conduct on the job.
    The first time was when he was working at the Times’ Moscow bureau, and he got busted for hacking into his colleagues’ email accounts.

    The second time, is when he famously began using sock puppets at his own LA Times blog, as an instrument for defending his own blog entries, which were often mocked by readers.
    He also was known to delete dissenting comments from his blog.
    I guess Mikie doesn’t think dissent is patriotic. Or something.

    Hiltzik likes to write as if he’s John Wayne walking through the doors of a saloon in a western movie, but the truth is he runs away from debates. Hugh Hewitt politely and civilly took him to school in an interview on his radio show a number of years ago, and Hiltzik has declined to return for another whupping ! um, interview.

    Elephant Stone (6a6f37)

  3. Hiltzik is just too dumb to understand the moral hazard created by the Administration announcing it would not verify incomes the first year of Obamacare.

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  4. Well duh daley, how can the progs be expected to redistribute wealth if there is an income verification process standing in the way?

    elissa (3961c8)

  5. elissa – Don’t bother me with details. I am pursuing a noble goal!

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  6. Anyone know if you can use Obamacare subsidies for lap dances? If you can’t, the damn system is really hosed.

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  7. elissa,

    Cue Tlaloc to explain to us how the GOP is to blame for the Unaffordable Don’t Care Act not containing an income verification process.

    Elephant Stone (6a6f37)

  8. Until then, the government said it would rely on the honor system and voluntary compliance, backed up by subsequent audits. Critics of Obamacare wring their hands over this, as though most of our financial reporting to the government isn’t already based on the honor system. (Or do you get audited by the IRS every year?)

    By that logic, almost every law is based on the honour system.

    Most people speed on occasion, but we still have loads of police officers patrolling the streets. That is because we simply lack the resources to fully investigate every violation of the law, and investigating each violation would be a remarkable intrusion into our liberty. So we often rely on spot-checking: being enough of a presence to deter people without assigning every individual his own personal crime-watcher.

    bridget (37b281)

  9. Washington Examiner is reporting that they can’t find any competing bidder’s besides CGI Federal for the Obamacare website.

    Any bets on who got paid off?

    SPQR (9c5bd8)

  10. the subsidies in the ACA are handed out in a discriminatory manner.

    i went to the Failifornia site and, according to them, i am too poor to be entitled to any subsidies…

    what kind of garbage is that? i am entitled to my fair share!

    redc1c4 (abd49e)

  11. Elephant Stone–I’m as guilty as the next guy but there was waaaay too much time and intellectual brainpower wasted here yesterday on that little insignificant mouse t*rd Tlaloc. He was clearly getting his ridiculous talking points off Daily Kos. There are not too many Rhodes Scholars that post over there.

    elissa (3961c8)

  12. “but there was waaaay too much time and intellectual brainpower wasted here yesterday on that little insignificant mouse t*rd”

    Amen, Elissa.

    felipe (70ff7e)

  13. elissa – You are completely right. I am particularly fond of that trope about the origins of this stuff being something from the Heritage Foundation, which represents a complete rewriting of history. I’ll bet none of these clowns has ever seen what Heritage wrote in the late 1980s and early 1990s, but it was an effort to be part of the discussion in case the public demanded national healthcare, not something they promoted. It was based on conservative principles of free markets, individual choice and no expansion of government, elements completely lacking in both Hillarycare and Obamacare.

    Hillarycare was pulled from the floor of the Democrat controlled Senate due to its unpopularity and Democrats rather than Republicans tagged with its sponsorship, resulting in the 1994 Republican takeover of the House of Representatives. This attempt by Democrats to rewrite history 20 years later is just par for the course. Most of the trolls are too young to remember.

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  14. elissa, yeah, I’ll never get those hours back, either. But sometimes I enjoy the entertainment value. It’s almost like an anthropological study. Instead of observing how the natives use clay to mold pottery which they will ultimately offer up as a gift to the God of Rain, we observe how the Daily Kos natives believe in sacrificing logic, facts, and truth to their God—big government.

    Elephant Stone (6a6f37)

  15. 6. Comment by daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 10/16/2013 @ 10:37 am

    Anyone know if you can use Obamacare subsidies for lap dances?

    Only after withdrawing the money from an ATM machine. But it is not distinguishable from any other money you might have.

    It’s actually a refundable tax credit.

    During the course of a year the amount of the subsidy would reduce the policy cost of a silver policy listed on thee exchange, and you’ll be billed less each month than would otherwise be the case.

    One newspaper advice piece told people to take less than the subsidy offered. That’s because, after the year is over, it will be recalculated!!

    Any money due will be subtracted from your federal tax refund, if any. Unless Congress intervenes.

    Any extra subsidy will become part of your tax refund.

    The IRS will not attempt to collect any money due because of this law, either because of receiving a too high subsidy, or the monthly penalty for not having insurance any month(s), any other way besides applying tax refunds to the balance due.

    That’s written into the law.

    Sammy Finkelman (d22d64)

  16. 9 Comment by SPQR (9c5bd8) — 10/16/2013 @ 10:48 am

    Washington Examiner is reporting that they can’t find any competing bidder’s besides CGI Federal for the Obamacare website.

    Obama changed the whole federal bidding process in March 2009, overturing 20 years worth of
    reforms that had mad ethe system more workable.

    http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304626104579123810694636126

    The Lunacy of ‘Fairness’ in Government Contracting

    Over the past five years, contract spending is down 10% but bid protests are up 45%.

    Wall Street Journal op-ed piece today.

    Sammy Finkelman (d22d64)

  17. They seem to think that the availability of subsidies will set off a torrent of fraud, because of course it’s worth facing $25,000 in statutory penalties in order to falsify documents to get a few hundred dollars a month in subsidies.

    Hiltzik seems to think that the lack of verification will not set off a torrent of fraud, because criminals are always rational; thus, the existence of criminal penalties means there will be no crime.

    More critically, it’s not the really rich types who would actually HAVE 25,000 in assets to take.

    It’s the borderline types who will underreport and otherwise not list their income sources…

    Because they’re all afraid of the IRS, aren’t they? The IRS goes after small-scale tax fraud all the time. It’s such a profitable venue for increased revenue… right?

    Smock Puppet, Gadfy, Racist-Sexist Thug, and Bon Vivant All In One Package (afdedb)

  18. Ol Sockpuppet Hiltzik is the kind of moron that gives the rest of the morons a bad name.

    Comanche Voter (c39ceb)

  19. (_*_)

    Yoda (c1890a)


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