“Job-Killing Regulations” Cited By The Chamber Are Designed To Protect Taxpayers Against Another Wall Street Meltdown

The ad’s claim that Maffei “voted to hit businesses with job-killing regulations” cites Roll Call vote #413 on June 30, 2010, in which the House passed the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

Dodd-Frank’s Reforms Aim To Prevent Another Financial Collapse. From the Associated Press: “Reveling in victory, President Barack Obama on Wednesday signed into law the most sweeping overhaul of financial regulations since the Great Depression, a package that aims to protect consumers and ensure economic stability from Main Street to Wall Street. The law, pushed through mainly by Democrats in Washington’s deeply partisan environment, comes almost two years after the infamous near financial meltdown in 2008 in the United States that was felt around the globe. The legislation gives the government new powers to break up companies that threaten the economy, creates a new agency to guard consumers and puts more light on the financial markets that escaped the oversight of regulators.” [Associated Press via San Diego Union-Tribune, 7/21/10]

• Dodd-Frank Created Council To Monitor Firms Large Enough To Endanger The Entire Economy. From Reuters: “The new Financial Stability Oversight Council will hold its first meeting on Oct. 1, according to sources familiar with the matter. The council of regulators, which was created by the Dodd-Frank financial regulatory overhaul law enacted in July, is charged with monitoring risks to the financial system. It is chaired by the Treasury secretary and is allowed to identify firms that threaten stability and subject them to tighter oversight by the Federal Reserve.” [Reuters, 9/15/10]
• Seeking To End Bailouts, Dodd-Frank Empowers FDIC To Take Over And Dismantle Failing Financial Institutions Large Enough To Endanger The Whole System. From Reuters: “Aiming to prevent more U.S. taxpayer bailouts, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reforms of 2010 set up an ‘orderly liquidation process’ for dealing with distressed financial firms. Here is how that process works: If a large, non-bank financial firm is in default or headed that way, regulators can move to put it into ‘orderly liquidation’ if they think its collapse would threaten financial stability. It is an alternative to bankruptcy. […] Once orderly liquidation begins, the firm is placed in receivership. That means the FDIC takes over. It develops a plan for dealing with the firm’s problems, and it provides funds to keep the firm from collapsing. FDIC receivership can last up to five years. […]The FDIC must dismiss the officers and directors responsible for the firm’s problems. Shareholders of the firm get no money until all other claims against the firm are paid. The FDIC itself may not invest in the firm. Creditors owed money by the firm can file a claim to get it back. The FDIC can disallow claims in part or entirely, and must draw up a priority list of who gets what. To settle the firm’s debts, the FDIC can sell the firm’s assets, sell the firm itself, or merge it with another firm.” [Reuters, 2/25/11]
• The Dodd-Frank Act Created The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). From a Wall Street Journal explanation of the Dodd-Frank bill’s components: “Consumer Agency: Creates a new consumer Financial Protection Bureau within the Federal Reserve, with rule-making powers and some enforcement control over banks and other financial companies. The new watchdog has authority to examine and enforce regulations for all mortgage-related businesses; banks and credit unions with assets of more than $10 billion in assets; payday lenders, check cashers and certain other non-bank financial firms. Auto dealers are exempted.” [Wall Street Journal, accessed 2/1/12]

Dodd-Frank Regulations Target Large Firms, Not Small Businesses

Small Banks Are Mostly Exempt From The Financial Reforms Passed “In Response To The Near Collapse Of The Financial System.” From the New York Times: “In response to the near collapse of the financial system in 2008, Congress last year passed the Dodd-Frank Act, which imposed restrictions on asset-backed securities, the derivatives industry and proprietary trading — some of Wall Street’s main profit centers. But the law largely exempted about 7,000 community banks and thrift institutions, nearly all of which hold less than $10 billion in assets and a third of which hold less than $100 million.” [New York Times, 5/2/11]

Community Banks Will Benefit From New Rules For Massive Wall Street Firms. From the New York Times: “Despite their protestations, community bankers are quick to praise certain parts of the law. Banks that hold less than $10 billion in assets, or roughly 98 percent of the 7,000 community banks scattered across the country, are immune from new capital and liquidity requirements, for example. The law also imposes curbs on proprietary trading and the derivatives business, restrictions that level the playing field for small lenders competing against giant competitors. But small banks perhaps benefited most from the overhaul of deposit insurance rules. The change, which forces large risk-taking banks to pay a bigger share of deposit insurance premiums, is expected to save small banks more than $4 billion over the next three years, according to Camden Fine, who leads the community bankers group.” [New York Times, 5/23/11, emphasis added]

Community Banks Saw Their Returns Double From 2010 To 2011. From the FDIC’s Quarterly Banking Profile from Q2 2011: “The average return on assets (ROA) rose to 0.85 percent, from 0.63 percent a year earlier. At community banks (institutions with less than $1 billion in assets), the average ROA of 0.57 percent was below the industry average, but more than twice the 0.26 percent registered a year ago.” [FDIC.gov, accessed 2/9/12]

Affordable Care Act Does Not Raise Taxes On Most Americans – And Includes Tax Credits For Millions

Affordable Care Act “Will Provide More Tax Relief Than Tax Burden” For Middle Class. According to the Washington Post fact checker Glenn Kessler: “The health law, if it works as the nonpartisan government analysts expect, will provide more tax relief than tax burden for middle-income Americans.” [WashingtonPost.com, 7/6/12]

FactCheck.org: “A Large Majority Of Americans Would Not See Any Direct Tax Increase From The Health Care Law.” According to FactCheck.org: “It’s certainly true that the health care law would raise taxes on some Americans, particularly those with higher incomes. The law includes a Medicare payroll tax of 0.9 percent on income over $200,000 for individuals or $250,000 for couples, and a 3.8 percent tax on investment income for those earning that much. The Joint Committee on Taxation estimated that the biggest chunk of revenue — $210.2 billion — comes from those taxes. There are other taxes in the health care law — including an excise tax on the manufacturers of certain medical devices and on indoor tanning services. The health care law included $437.8 billion in tax revenue over 10 years, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation‘s calculations. Republicans tend to add in fees on individuals who don’t obtain health insurance (which the Supreme Court now agrees can be considered taxes) and businesses that don’t provide it to bump that up to about $500 billion. Some taxes, such as those on medical devices, may or may not be passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices, but a large majority of Americans would not see any direct tax increase from the health care law.” [FactCheck.org, 6/28/12]

• Individual Penalty Payments “Tiny” Compared To President Obama’s Previous Tax Cuts. According to FactCheck.org, the increased revenue from penalty payments by individuals who do not obtain health insurance represents “a tiny future increase compared with the tax cuts Obama has already delivered, including an estimated $120 billion in 2012 alone from the 2 percentage point cut in payroll taxes.” [FactCheck.org, 5/17/12]

Affordable Care Act Includes Tax Credits For Millions Of Americans. According to Families USA: “We found that an estimated 28.6 million Americans will be eligible for the tax credits in 2014, and that the total value of the tax credits that year will be $110.1 billion. The new tax credits will provide much-needed assistance to insured individuals and families who struggle harder each year to pay rising premiums, as well as to uninsured individuals and families who need help purchasing coverage that otherwise would be completely out of reach financially. Most of the families who will be eligible for the tax credits will be employed, many for small businesses, and will have incomes between two and four times poverty (between $44,100 and $88,200 for a family of four based on 2010 poverty guidelines).” [FamiliesUSA.org, September 2010]

“Who Will Pay For It?” Drug Companies, Insurance Companies And The Wealthy, Mostly

Joint Committee On Taxation Found 91 Percent Of The Revenue Raised By ACA Will Come From Drug Companies, Insurance Companies, Medical Device Companies, And Wealthy Taxpayers. According to the Joint Committee on Taxation, 91 percent of the revenues raised by the Affordable Care Act through 2022 come from: the excise tax on high-value insurance plans; fees on drug manufacturers and importers; the excise tax on medical device manufacturers; fees on insurance companies; and Taxes on individuals making over $200,000 per year/couples making over $250,000 per year. [Joint Committee on Taxation via WaysAndMeans.House.gov, 6/15/12]

• CBPP: Medical Device Manufacturers Are Being Taxed Because Health Care Law Will Increase Their Business. From the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: “The House will soon consider legislation to repeal the excise tax on medical devices that was enacted to help pay for health reform.  The provision is sound, however, and the industry lobbying campaign aimed at repealing it is based on misinformation and exaggeration. … The medical device industry is not being singled out.  The excise tax is one of several new levies on sectors that will gain business due to health reform.  The expansion of health coverage will increase the demand for medical devices and could offset the effect of the tax.” [CBPP.org,4/31/12, emphasis original]

Many Small Businesses Are Eligible For Tax Credits Under The Affordable Care Act

Affordable Care Act Offers Tax Credits To Many Small Businesses. According to a report from Small Business Majority and Families USA: “Congress included in the Affordable Care Act a significant new tax credit for small business owners who provide their workers with health insurance. Under this new tax credit, businesses that have fewer than 25 full-time workers and average wages of less than $50,000 are now eligible to receive a tax credit of up to 35 percent of the cost of the health insurance that they provide for their workers. To qualify for the tax credit, small businesses must cover at least 50 percent of each employee’s health insurance premiums. In 2014, the size of the credit will increase to cover up to 50 percent of the cost of health insurance provided to workers.” [SmallBusinessMajority.org, May 2012]

• More Than 3.2 Million Small Businesses Eligible For ACA Tax Credit. According to a report from Small Business Majority and Families USA: “Our analysis found that more than 3.2 million small businesses, employing 19.3 million workers across the nation, will be eligible for this tax credit when they file their 2011 taxes. In total, these small businesses are eligible for more than $15.4 billion in credits for the 2011 tax year alone, an average of $800 per employee.” [SmallBusinessMajority.org, May 2012]

 ACA Requires Businesses With More Than 50 Employees To Provide Affordable Coverage Or Pay A Fee. According to a report from Small Business Majority and FamiliesUSA: “While the Affordable Care Act created this new tax credit to help small business owners and workers, it does not force these small business owners to provide coverage for their workers. There are no employer mandates in the law, and there are no employer responsibility requirements at all for businesses with fewer than 50 workers, which account for 96 percent of all firms in the United States. Starting in 2014, businesses with 50 or more workers that do not offer coverage or that offer only unaffordable coverage to their workers will be assessed a fee if one or more of their workers receives a federal individual premium tax credit to purchase coverage in an exchange.” [SmallBusinessMajority.org, May 2012]

Health Insurers Poured Money Into Chamber To Attack Reform

Health Insurance Industry Gave Chamber Over $100 Million To Fight Health Care Reform. From the National Journal: “The nation’s leading health insurance industry group gave more than $100 million to help fuel the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s 2009 and 2010 efforts to defeat President Obama’s signature health care reform law, National Journal’s Influence Alley has learned. During the final push to kill the bill before its March 2010 passage, America’s Health Insurance Plans gave the chamber $16.2 million. With the $86.2 million the insurers funneled to the business lobbying powerhouse in 2009, AHIP sent the chamber a total of $102.4 million during the health care reform debate, a number that has not been reported before now. The backchannel spending allowed insurers to publicly stake out a pro-reform position while privately funding the leading anti-reform lobbying group in Washington. The chamber spent tens of millions of dollars bankrolling efforts to kill health care reform.” [NationalJournal.com, 6/13/12]