The GOP should capitalize on the collapse of ObamaCare's CLASS Act

The only reason the Health and Human Services Department pre-emptively called off this scheme is that former New Hampshire Senator Judd Gregg succeeded in inserting a proviso that required the Class program’s reality to match Democratic promises as a matter of law. If HHS couldn’t provide “an actuarial analysis of the 75-year costs of the program that ensures solvency throughout such 75-year period,” it couldn’t be legally implemented.

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In other words, HHS had to prove that the Class program wouldn’t go broke the way it was designed to—and actuarial analysis is a matter of math, not politics…

At a minimum the GOP could begin by repealing the Class program altogether, since its legal authority is still intact. “One should never leave a partly loaded gun on the table, even if most of the chambers are empty or just house blanks,” writes the American Enterprise Institute’s Tom Miller. He also suggests attaching a few of the more destructive provisions and forcing Democrats to defend them, such as Mr. Orszag’s Independent Payment Advisory Board of 15 political appointees who have broad unaccountable powers to control health-care markets and health care.

Our suggestion is for a Gregg-like amendment that applies to the entire health law and not simply Class. If reality can’t match the rhetoric that accompanied the bill—about fiscal responsibility, bending the cost curve, keeping your health care if you like your health care and all the other false promises—then, legally, it should be repealed like Class. Call it a truth-in-advertising clause. ObamaCare would collapse in a heartbeat.

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