In the latest year-end budget bonanza, Congress repealed three taxes imposed by the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to pay for expensive health benefit expansions. These taxes join several of the ACA's other unpopular “pay fors” that have fallen by the wayside since enactment in 2010. What's left of the law are its entitlement commitments, weak and hesitant cost-control ideas, and revenue provisions which are insufficient to fully offset the added federal spending.
The law's authors promised a different outcome. Ten years ago they said the ACA would improve the government's fiscal outlook, not worsen it. The Congressional Budget Office provided confirmation when it estimated the law would produce deficit reduction of $143 billion over ten years and between 0.25 and 0.50 percent of GDP ($0.7 to $1.3 trillion) in its second decade.
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